Artist: Blackfield
Album title: IVFormat: Vinyl
Label: KSCOPE Number: KSCOPEPE830Studios: Air Studios, Zaza Studios, Angel
Studios, Musikbox Studios, Ofer Meiri’s Studio, Pluto Studios and No Man’s
LandCover Art: Carl GloverProduced and Written by Aviv GeffenMixed by Steven Wilson
Side 1:
- · Pills
- · Springtime
- · X-Ray
- · Sense of Insanity
- · Firefly
- · The Only Fool is Me
Side 2:
- · Jupiter
- · Kissed by the Devil
- · Lost Souls
- · Faking
- · After the Rain
There was a time, back in the 70’s, when I
would burst in anticipation of every new release by one of my then favourite
bands. Typically, progressive rock bands
such as Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant.
Each release would find me walking to our nearest record store and
making the essential purchase; then rushing home to release the album from its
shrink wrap and after smelling the packaging, placing side one onto my
turntable and dropping the needle with great care. As the first sounds emitted from the vinyl I
would examine the album art and then read every inch of the sleeve notes then
as the album played, every lyric. It’s
never been the same since the demise of the vinyl album and the excitement has
waned with CD’s pathetic cover art and lyrics too small to read with the naked
(and now no longer 20/20) eye.
During the past few years Vinyl has had a
resurgence and many of todays releases have both a digital and a vinyl
issue. Then there are the reissues on 180-gram
vinyl. There are only a few bands that
get me excited when a new release is offered for pre-order. I could probably count them on one hand and
anything from the Steven Wilson camp tempts me to make that ever so excited
pre-order purchase.
Of Steven Wilson's releases whether they are
solo, Porcupine Tree or Blackfield it is the Blackfield albums that really rock
my boat. I have them all on 180-gram
vinyl but the new release, Blackfield IV, now takes the number one slot on my
turntable.
A single vinyl album, Blackfield IV is not
overlong to fill a CD to its gills but a the 11 songs span a mere 31 m
42s. To produce an album of this size is
both brave but also means the artist really has to decide the best works. Avid Geffen really does this well. Each side of the album is a delight with
memorable tunes and wonderful orchestration topped by a superlative stereo mix
by Steven Wilson.
Previous Blackfield albums have been mainly
Avid Geffen and Steven Wilson providing most of the songs, vocals and
instrumentation. Backfield IV is a
different beast altogether. 8 tracks
have Aviv on lead vocal with guest vocalists Vincent Cavanagh (Anathema) on “X-Ray”, Brett Anderson (Suede) on “Firefly” and Jonathan Donahue (Mercury
Rev) on “The Only Fool is Me”. Steven
Wilson takes lead vocal on only three
tracks and backing vocals on 4 tracks.
Side 1 kicks off the album with a great
classic Blackfield song “Pills”. This track could so easily have come straight
off this albums predecessor “Welcome to
my DNA”. In fact this seems to be one of
the tracks which has more Wilson input than the others. This track was released months before the
album was released and was a really good teaser. Geffen’s nervous warbling vocal is
beautifully supported by Wilson’s harmony.
Unfortunately what follows does not stand up to the quality of this
song.
“Springtime”
is another track that adopts the classic Blackfield sound although is filled
with some lush Wilson backing vocals and strings and horns from the London
Session orchestra. A nice touch but
makes the sound more mainstream. Is that
a good thing? No, not for me.
Vince Cavanagh of Anathema takes the lead
vocal next for “X-Ray”. I love the brothers Vincent and Daniel
Cavanagh’s vocals. “X-Ray” simply sounds like an Anathema track, the only problem being
that it ends so quickly. With Anathema
we are used to long prog tracks, but here we get a sweet lush song lasting a
mere 2mins 36 secs. It’s a great track
but could have been developed with a shared Geffen vocal. It just doesn’t develop. Perhaps Vincent had to leave for a gig!
“Sense
of Insanity” is classic Geffen. A
song about war in Geffen’s homeland. If
Geffen wants a hit single then he should release this one. It’s a soft ballad with tones of U2 and
Coldplay. I could imagine this being a
crowd pleaser at a stadium gig (which unfortunately Geffen won’t achieve). The fade out is a rousing chorus of oh-oh-oh
and guitar reminiscent of Chris Martin and a Jonny Buckland guitar riff. Is Geffen showing he can do mainstream or is
this a Coldplay copy?
“Firefly”
delivers another guest vocal but this time it’s from Brett Anderson from
Suede. This track is one of the albums
stand-out tracks. It’s a pacey track
that could be a real hit for Anderson if released as a single. When Geffen penned this I wonder what made
him decide on Anderson vocal? It
certainly fits. This is a really
outstanding track and I have played it over and over again. It’s the albums hit single.
Side 1 ends with another guest vocal, this
time from Jonathan Donohue of Mercury Rev.
“The Only Fool is Me” is
backed by a Harp and strings from the London Session Orchestra. Again it is too short a track and sounds like
filler from a Mercury Rev album and wouldn’t sound out of place in a London
Musical.
Side 2 opens with “Jupiter”. A string laden pop
tune with Wilson taking lead vocal and a wonderful simple drum pattern
reminiscent of late Beatles and Tears for fears circa “Sowing the Seeds of
love” period. It’s a great pop tune that
instantly makes you think you’ve heard it before.
Next up jumps straight into “Kissed by the Devil”. A love song, where Geffen is missing a
girlfriend now gone (or is he alluding to missing Wilson writing for this
album?). This ends with a fade with
Wilson singing “When She Goes away”. A
classic tail off vocal that takes me back to those wonderful Beatles fades
heard from “Rubber Soul” onwards.
“Lost
Souls” then gets going with a great simple chord riff from Wilson. Both Geffen and Wilson share the main vocal
(Geffen in front with Wilson thickening up the vocals with a double track of
his voice). It’s a song that chugs along
but doesn’t really go anywhere and would have benefitted from a Wilson inspired
soaring guitar solo. In fact this album
needs more Wilson guitar.
With side 2 almost over we get into “Faking”. A song that is much more
Blackfield-esque. A pumping beat that
could out “Snow Patrol”: “Snow Patrol”!
Tagged onto the end we get a solo piece by
Geffen: After the Rain”. Great electronic syncopated drums and lush
keyboards with a very simple lyric. A
great ending but leaving this listener wanting for so much more.
Steven Wilson said this was not the sort of
music “where he is right now”. Not
surprising really as Wilson's epic solo album “The Raven That Refused to Sing”
is a real group effort with string musicians and haunting themes. With Wilson leaving this album to Geffen it
suffers and has lost any hard edge that Wilson might have bought to the
table. I can imagine Wilson being bored
by it. To me it’s a beautiful album with
some good commercial songs that lack development and ay notion of a hard
edge. Think Brett Anderson solo without
Suede. Great stuff but lacking the Suede
edge.
Would I recommend it? Of course I love
Blackfield, but for me Geffen is not being pushed here and I imagine wants to
break into mainstream pop/rock to earn the success he clearly deserves. If you were to take off Wilsons input this
would be an album that would disappear without trace. Geffen has the support of some successful
friends but it won’t make him a star. If
these are the 11 strongest tracks from a pool of 30 then god only knows what
the other 19 are like.
On a more positive note I cannot fault the
packaging. A great sleeve with classic
Blackfield imagery and a wonderful 180 gram vinyl which is silent and has the
expected vinyl warmth. The mix is
classic pop, which I don’t feel Wilson spent too much time on (he is so busy he
probably doesn’t have too much time).
Jon’s verdict: 3 out of 5 stars – more
effort required!
