perhaps the most intricate A23 album to date
5
By Lemn76
One might think that, after five full studio albums spanning well over a decade, Assemblage 23 would be running out of creative steam, but this sixth album proves this is not the case.
A23 has evolved from the more highly emotionally charged earlier works, to a calmer, more centered, but no less introspective outlook over time. At the same time, the musical programming/engineering has gotten ever more intricate, varied, and innovative. This album continues both trends, especially the latter.
This album may be too "chill" for some fans of earlier works. The only really aggressively moody track is Greed; the rest wander mostly through the territory of melancholy and foreboding(entirely appropriate for our times), and a few seem almost joyful in their very sadness(feeling anything is often preferable to feeling nothing, particularly as the years wear on). All points of the "Compass", perhaps.
Bottom line: again, I don't know how A23 continues to innovate, but it does, even as it's bitter heart slows over the years, as all must do. A23 fans cannot go wrong with this album.
