Think Like A Key 2025
Californian strain of art-rock adventurousness as means to mine esoteric meanings and arresting melodies from a shuffling deck of cards.
CHRISTIAN NESMITH –
Arcana
Despite starting around the same time, running along similar courses for about twenty years, and collaborating for ages, Circe Link and Christian Nesmith’s creative paths seemed to have fully, with both their names on the cover, converged only when the two Los Angelenos joined forces to imagine “Cosmologica” in 2021. It wasn’t what these artists’ audiences came to expect from either of them, yet external prog audiences embraced that album with respectful surprise, so there’s been an air of eager anticipation about it’s sequel whose pieces focus on enigmas of Tarot rather than exploration of space. Not an original idea, of course, with Steve Hackett‘s debut platter delving into the same subject five decades earlier, but the American conspirators approach the fortunetelling lore from a different angle, while staying within the frontiers of their chosen genre, and the results of the duo’s trip into psychic matters, each of the five epics on display depicting an aspect of the titular array, are arresting.
Given that, for Circe and Christian, it’s still a stylistic experiment of sorts, there’s not a lot of sonic trials on offer, and the allure and wonder of this album lie in the lushness of their tunes and arrangements, so the welcoming, fairy-tale shimmer of Nesmith’s ivories and the silk-to-velvet texture of Link’s voice feel enough to pull the listener into the echoing vortex of “The Tower” where dramatic effects and dynamic scope stage a riveting aural spectacle. As guitar riffs cut across generous layers of Moog and Hammond, and multitracked vocals sparkle and shine, reflective surfaces of initial serenity get shattered to reveal the two C’s melodic grandeur, with acoustic strum and electric lines vying for room with stereo-panned, oratorio-sized polyphony over many a tempo shift, before bass-propelled pop sensibilities enhance the baroque veneer of “The Magician” which delivers an homage to the messengers of “Long Distance Runaround” without sounding derivative and lands on anthemic sway and a cappella fadeout. For a contrast, “The Fool” goes for deceptive rustic simplicity, folk motifs encrusting the ballad’s largely unplugged expanse, while “The Hanged Man” exudes hazy atmosphere to shroud infectious figures in until massive chords float into view to transform the scene and paint a richly colored landscape in front of one’s mind’s eye, and “The Chariot” refracts a wide variety of moods through Christian’s instrumental prowess and Circe’s passionate performances.
Not that all of this is apparent during a single spin of the record – recurrent playbacks are much more rewarding when it comes to unraveling this album’s secrets. A perilous journey, with a risk of getting stuck inside the mystery, yet worth embarking on, nonetheless.
****1/2
