The Benja-man Is Verbose

Two general points that relate to the record before I make a few very preliminary comments about I Am Easy To Find - presumably a different person than the one who was so "Hard To Find" a couple records ago. *   First of all - yes, I know it's an obvious thing to say - art can only be partially divorced from the context in which it was first experienced.  I deliberately came into this record blind, knowing only that it's somehow connected to a short film of the same title and that it has a lot of duets with female vocalists.  [I'm now led to believe that some of the songs started as  Sleep Well era outtakes and were used to track a film, and that the film then inspired more songs.]  Audiences listening to the record in 2019 would have known it was coming, would have known about the film and possibly seen it, and would have known who was performing on which track.  When you put something out into the world, though, it has to stand on its own.  Five years later, som

I decided I did need to do a post about Vên after all, being such an apparently devoted fan and all.  And I had to listen to all of its versions. For the purposes of this post, if I just mention Vê n, I'm referring to the EP released (to a very limited audience) in 2004.  It exists only on YouTube and the like for us digital people, and apparently the physical versions are also very hard to find.  The "other versions" of songs that I'll mention include:  - the "Demo," also via YouTube, is the original 2003 version of Vên .  It featured incarnations of all the same songs that later ended up on the 2004 EP.  At this point in time Eluveitie was a "studio project" rather than a band.  I amuse myself imagining Chigrel playing everything himself in a cramped attic somewhere, although I do believe that there were some session musicians involved. - the Early Years , mentioned in previous posts, is the compilation released in 2012 that includes, among oth

Raingods occupies an interesting place in the Fish pantheon.  It's a one-time major label release between the indie records, with a short-lived relationship with metal label Roadrunner Records. *    It's even more all over the place than usual with regard to who plays on what - guitarists and guest vocalists drop in and out of the record like mad.  Mickey Simmonds is back, but only on some of the songs!  Steven Wilson is back, but only on some of the songs!  And I have not gotten a clear sense of Raingods 's reputation among the Fishheads.  The ranking lists I saw when first learning about Fish - usually individual bloggers and forum posters and the like -  tended to list this one as amongst his middling period, and it tends to get passed over for big rereleases and retrospectives.  The record was the only pre-2020 Fish record not to have its own Wikipedia page until late 2024, but it has a page now, and whoever wrote it says that Raingods is "often hailed as one of Fi

Finally getting around to this.  We're back in metal-land with the new guys and gals fully incorporated into the band.  Sticking with the reported spirit of collaboration, Jonas Wolf (again - JONAS. WOLF.  Still such a metal name...) is credited with production help and gets just tons of songwriting credits, including getting listed before Chigrel on occasion.  Most of the others pitch in here and there too as co-writers, but it's mostly Chigrel and Jonas.  Here's what they come up with on the band's longest release to date. Track One:  "Ategnatos" Oh great, more Andrew narration.  At least it's brief.  An appealing flute figure that'll pop up a few times on this record * (and in our first bit of "this sounds like that other song," it sounds a lot like the tune also used as the basis for "The Nameless" - no wonder I keep wanting to sing "holy father in darkness" instead of the actual lyrics) leads us into an appealing Fab

Sunsets On Empire is the Steven Wilson record to many.  The future Porcupine Tree mastermind and future "that guy who does a remaster of every prog and prog-adjacent record ever recorded" is the guitarist on a big chunk of it, and a co-writer on a big chunk of the songs.  This is a big deal, apparently.  I wonder if the fact that the best I've been able to muster for Porcupine Tree/Wilson solo over the years is a casual mild interest will reflect on how I feel about Sunsets ?   I really have no idea who the touring band was at this point, and in particular how many guitarists were involved.  On the record you have Steven, and Robin Boult (a credited writer on three tracks, including two of the standouts), and Frank Usher, each doing different parts.  Ewen Vernal is the main bassist, Foss Patterson the main keyboardist, Dave Stewart the main drummer, and Lorna Bannon the most frequently used backup voice, but various other people are credited with or instead of them in var