Every good album has, by definition, something particular that catches your attention – and that happens quite often after one or a few listenings already. Something that sets it apart from the rest and manages to keep your attention above the “nah, let’s switch to something else” level.
Either that’s a bad or a good thing (bad: good albums are a few; good: it’s a criterium to tell good from bad), Spleen Arcana’s The Field Where She Died does fall into that category. Not bad for a debut. And definitely not bad for a prog rock album.
So, what may (or may not) strike you about this album is the fine balance between soft, relaxing moments and faster-paced bits. Nothing schizophrenic, as the former definitely prevail over the latter, so that the general tone is kept light and soothing throughout most of the record. The way that’s realised is pretty skillful, though. A Picture of Two Lovers in the Mist shall suffice as an example to that – with its suspended start, progressively fading into a darker atmosphere, and eventually getting back to slow, very relaxed beats.
Trample on Me already sets the tone for the following four tracks, being a nice mixture of slower and faster tempos, again skillfully dosed throughout the song. Isn’t this what prog music should be all about? A delicate play of differences, melody and rhythm, soft and heavy, reflexive and aggressive, and what not. Spleen Arcana (I also advice you to visit the official site for further info and an interesing insight on the actual creation of the music, which is a nice alternative to the same old bunch of posing pics and banal bio’s to be found on most band sites) manage to keep a nice balance between the two extremes, without ever really getting that close to the heavy one. Classic prog rock influences are to be recognised here and there in the album, and that accounts for the general quiet mood.
A vein of melancholy and thoughtfulness is still present though, and it kind of imbues each of the tracks. The album probably meets its lowest by the ballad (and shortest track), The Missing Piece, which also happens to be the most classic prog-oriented number — meaning the fans of oldies won’t be disappointed by it anyway.
THUS SPAKE THE CENNSOR: All in all, The Field Where She Died does offer quite enough as to please both lovers of mature rock music as it was used to be played a couple of decennia ago, and those who (like me) simply don’t mind to be (gently) carried away by soft, well-composed melodies with a fine taste of somberness or, shall we say, spleen. 7/10
