Grand Tour 2024
Existential treatise on crises which define humanity from stalwarts of Scottish art-rock scene who seek emotional contrast in the bleakness of current affairs.
An Ordinary Life
Philosophy and flashiness rarely make comfortable bedfellows, yet these five Glaswegians have been on the lookout for a perfect balance between the two deceptive extremes for years now – first separately, in different collectives, and since 2017, together – and all they did as a unit suggested exactly that. With the band’s debut “The Source” followed by “Once Around The Sun” in 2020 and “An Ordinary Life” apparently completing the three-album arc, the quintet’s journey may seem quite adventurous, but it’s not surface tension the band set on to estimate. Instead, it’s deeper waters they’re eager to fathom, the unseen currents moving us as species and serving as our hidden motives which can be expressed via melodic motifs. In the musicians’ opinion, expressed here rather eloquently, life is a three-act play, and upon spinning their sonic spectacle, the listeners are bound to agree.
They reach the point of no return immediately, once opener “Fight The Hand That Bleeds You” lifts the veil of understated grandeur that will defy this and other pieces’ epic scope by offering the wonder of riveting tunes which, refracted through pop-bombast, are wrapped around serious, sociopolitical lyrics. Delivered by Martin Haggarty with an equal measure of sincerity and aplomb over the stormy waves of Mike Baxter’s ivories and Renaldo McKim’s robust guitar riffs – the instrumental figures ready to soar to the skies – the words will resonate even with the most cynical audience. So when the Hamlet-evoking “Morpheus” floats in on strum to introduce celestial balladry to the flow, one can feel lulled by its chamber-like calmness setting the scene for the piano-driven “Life I” where cold histrionics and warm vocal polyphony waltz so elegantly before “Sand” sculpts drama out of heavy passages and lets David Mclachlan’s bass and Alex Smith’s drums drive the ensemble’s performance to a folk-informed delirium.
However, while “Shadows” issues idyllic vistas of immense allure, thanks to its flamenco-esque six-string lace and cosmic synthesizer lines, the tranquil “Life II – The Arc” unfolds into an infectious chorus, and “Moscow” adds symphonic splendor to the rhythm section’s tight groove as a precursor to “Life III – Empty Shore”: the album’s hope-harboring, if somewhat shoegazing, finale. The pondering is required, though: with the release of “An Ordinary Life” LONG EARTH are ready to replace ASIA on the pomp-prog pedestal.
*****
