Tuesday 8 June 2010

Kayak - Letters from Utopia (2009)

Tracklist:
1. Rhea
2. Because I...
3. Turbulence
4. Before the Angels Fell
5. Breaking the News
6. For All the Wrong Reasons
7. Under the Radar
8. Hard Work
9. Nobody Wins

1. Circles in the Sand
2. Never Was
3. Glass Bottom Boat
4. Horror in Action
5. A Whisper
6. Parallel Universe
7. Let the Record Show
8. Brothers in Rhyme
9. When the Love Has Gone
10. Letters From Utopia

Good, but could’ve been better – 7,5/10

The celebrated lineup that produced Coming Up For Air has hereby released their second and last album. This is the last album ever to feature drummer, composer and founder Pim Koopman, which makes this album quite special. A quick listen lets us conclude that the band continued in the same vein of the previous album. Yet there is one thing... it is a double album?! And there’s not even a concept... They must have a VERY good reason for doing this. Coincidentally, they stated on the site that they simply recorded too many songs. And that’s just the reason why this album is not as great as it could’ve or should’ve been.

Oh yes, there still is that heavy prog sound of deep and heavy guitars combined with the clear and fresh synthesizers. There’s a good variation of the powerful voice of Cindy Oudshoorn and the sweet voice of Edward Reekers, with the occasional entry of the somewhat hoarse voice of Rob Vunderink. Surely, the vocal performance on most of the songs is absolutely great and one of the stronger elements of Letters From Utopia. Only Edward Reekers sometimes seems to let himself go on auto-pilot, thus sounding rather uninspired at for example “Circles in the Sand”. This album mainly expands on the sound of the previous album, but this time also includes true epics and anthems such as “Before the Angels Fell” and “Nobody Wins”. Also, Pim Koopman seems on fire with his compositions as they are among the best songs. They are few, but great. The majority is written by Ton Scherpenzeel, who is responsible for some true gems, but also for the mindless filler material. It’s also good to see Edward Reekers having written his first song for Kayak. “Horror in Action” that is, and it’s got a bit of a nostalgic early 70s sound.

This album is overlong. We’ve got 19 song spread over two discs, but I can tell you it would’ve been a better idea to release one disc with a little less tracks. They could’ve used the other tracks as bonustracks or b-sides, if they wanted. Now let’s begin with the album-worthy tracks. “Rhea” opens the album with an insane synth-riff and some wah-wah guitar underneath. The verses are a real treat with cool guitarlicks by Joost Vergoossen between the words. “Because I...” is the first Koopman song you’ll meet. It’s an enchanting ballad with the heights on Reekers’ voice instantly reminding of the good ol’ 70s period. The transition from Reekers to Oudshoorn on vocals is a brilliant move. There’s the 8-or-9-minute epic “Before the Angels Fell”. All three vocalists feature here, beginning with Oudshoorn and a piano background, which soon turns into Reekers and a cheerful dragging synth-rock accompaniment. Not long after it becomes a truly symphonic masterpiece when the epic guitar melody is blown into your ears. Soon Oudshoorn comes back for some rock, and a little later Vunderink will accompany you through a fast-paced rock piece. And then it goes back to Reekers, the melody, Oudshoorn, a climax, and a sad instrumental outro. Without a doubt it’s one of the best songs Kayak released since 2003’s rock opera. “Under the Radar” sounds very nostalgic and sounds like it could’ve been released in the early 70s, just like “Horror in Action”. Other great tracks will have to be the Koopman tracks “Nobody Wins”, “Brothers in Rhyme” and “Let the Record Show”. The first two are downright epic, and the third is a pop song that just sounds very fresh.

Then the darker side of this album... I appreciate Kayak is trying to grow balls and implements more hard rock tracks on their albums, but “Turbulence” is not the way to go. It features a non-catchy synth-theme with VERY boring and hectic drums. There’re some perhaps funny things in the chorus, like the little screams by Rob Vunderink, but overall it’s just not well found. There are some good hard rock tracks on this album though, like “Hard Work” and “Glass Bottom Boat”, although they might not always fit in between the other tracks. “Circles in the Sand” is a ballad without power. That being said it mainly features Scherpenzeel on piano and synth and Reekers on the microphone; there’s no build up, which I take it, was done on purposely to let the lyrics gain a climax, but it’s the worst way ever to open a disc. “Never Was” sounds like it could’ve been epic and I guess it is a little, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before on this 2CD. “Parallel Universe” is a power ballad with Oudshoorn on vocals, but again we’ve heard it before. We don’t want too many of the same, and that’s this album’s biggest mistake.

All in all, this is not a bad release, but it contains too many songs. Luckily, modern technology allows us to delete those tracks we don’t want to hear in any media player, thus giving us the destined but subjective tracklist of Letters From Utopia. Here down below I will put my suggestion of the tracklist. I sincerely recommend this album to Kayak fans, since it’s just another good album, really.

Strongest tracks: “Because I...”, “Before the Angels Fell” and “Nobody Wins”.
Weakest tracks: “Turbulence” and “Circles in the Sand”.

Suggested tracklist:
1. Rhea
2. Because I...
3. Under the Radar
4. Before the Angels Fell
5. Breaking the News
6. Hard Work
7. For All the Wrong Reasons
8. A Whisper
9. Glass Bottom Boat
10. Let the Record Show
11. Brothers in Rhyme
12. Letters From Utopia
13. When the Love has Gone
14. Nobody Wins

No comments:

Post a Comment