British proggers THE GIFT aren’t strangers to long pauses in their discography, yet while it’s easy to chalk up an eight-year gap between the band’s 2006 debut “Awake & Dreaming” and that record’s follow-up “Land Of Shadows” to the latter being a proverbially difficult second album, the slightly shorter wait for the group’s fifth platter, a successor to 2019’s “Antenna” should be attributed to other factors. The new offering is titled “Seven Seasons” and scheduled for release on November 21st.
“The album was conceived during the long months of lockdown back in 2020,” says the band’s principal singer-songwriter Mike Morton. “In those days of reflection, I began writing songs about different episodes in a life. Then, inspired by a friend connecting this to Shakespeare’s ‘The Seven Ages Of Man,’ the concept grew into a seven-part song cycle, each describing a specific chapter of our mortal journey, from birth to end days. The music is equally wide ranging, incorporating progressive rock, hard rock, orchestral, blues, jazz and even a Forties’ style torch song.”
Seven Seasons
“Seven Season” features a few guests: the Hackett brothers, Steve and John, on two different tracks, and LIFESIGNS bassist Jon Poole on one of those numbers.
1. Overture
2. Coming Down To Land
3. Baby Blue Eyes
4. Sweet Bird Of Youth
5. Lay Your Heart On Me
6. Yours Sincerely
7. Evensong
8. Love Is Where We’re From
