GRAVE NEW WORLD

Simply stunning. It is very, very rare, even among 5 star albums, to find something this consistent. This is only a 35 minute album, but, like many others, its brevity works in its favor, as every single song is strong. This is one of the most "listenable" albums I've ever heard, in the sense that there's not a single moment spent thinking on or waiting for "the better parts," because it's all good. Hopefully that makes sense.

The music here is fairly straightforward; there are no 10 minute solos or grand multi-part albums, but, again, this works in its favor. The songs say what they need to say and nothing more. Regarding the music, this is definitely more folk than straight up prog, but the songs are exceptionally well composed and there's enough here to keep it interesting.

Lyrically, this is a concept album, but, like many concept albums, I don't really know what the concept is. It doesn't matter, the lyrics work well with the music.

Highlights, in my mind, are "Heavy Disguise," a nice horn-accompanied folk song, and "New World," which uses a lot of synths over a simple guitar chords and has easily the best vocal performance on the album; very passionate. As I said though, the whole album is good, and at no point do I ever feel the need to skip a track. Easily a masterpiece and required listening for any fan of progressive folk.

5/5