And Also the Trees "The Millpond Years" (1988)

The Millpond Years

release date: May 1988

format: vinyl (LEX 9) / cd (1992 reissue)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]
producer: AATT and Richard Waghorn
label: Reflex Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "The Suffering of the Stream" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Simple Tom and the Ghost of Jenny Bailey" - 3. "The House of the Heart" - 5. "Count Jeffrey" (4 / 5) - 7. "The Sandstone Man" (4 / 5) - 8. "From the Silver Frost" (4 / 5) - 9. "The Millpond Years" (4,5 / 5)

3rd studio album by And Also the Trees released on Reflex (cd-issue on the German label, Normal) and produced by the band and Richard Waghorn. The album contains really great tunes and has an overall superb feel making it almost on par with their best album Virus Meadow (1986). The greatness of the predecessor is in a way repeated on this, stylistically and musically with a new element of keyboards.
It doesn't quite reach the same level of greatness as it feels less original. What seemed new and refreshing in '86, the theatrical Shakespearian lyrics, becomes less apparent on this. Another minor issue with the release is the inconsistent soundscape as a whole. By this, I mean, the thematic contrasts that one will find in eg. the beauty and lightness in songs like "The House of the Heart" and "From the Silver Frost", which are indeed the opposite of what one has come to associate with the band. On the other side it contains the melancholic hopelessness in e.g. "Count Jeffrey".
The (new) additional keyboard element by Mark Tibenham adds strong dynamics to the songs, yes! But this is almost too much. I think, the 'problem' is that the music in itself - the bold melancholy in both Simon's voice and the music - contains the genuine dynamics and with the almost thundering additional keyboards (by Mark Tibenham) the music nearly drowns itself making the 'problem' more of a productional one. However, critics really liked this - and so do I.
Before this they released the live album The Evening of the 24th (1987).
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]