Amber Run
For A Moment, I Was Lost

Amber Run, two years after their good debut "5 am", make a comeback with a new studio work.

For those unfamiliar with them, they are an English quartet from Nottingham, with one album debut and three EPs all released in 2014. Titled "For A Moment, I Was Lost", the new work was preceded by four singles and published via Easy Life Records (after the major experience with Sony for the debut).

The four already released tracks had already highlighted a good eclecticism of the trans-channel combo: the lead single "Haze" was quite surprising, an unusual good minute and a half à la Bon Iver which, all things considered, has little in common with the rest of the work. “Stranger” and “No Answer” (with a beautiful final progression and an included incisive guitar explosion) draw heavily (as in almost the rest of the album) from Muse and Radiohead of the The Bends era, all spiced up with that distinct melancholy that made Embrace one of the most underrated English bands ever.

"Fickle Game" is the perfect leading single, halfway between early One Republic (those less contaminated by chart pop) and Daughter; in the same category also falls the penultimate track "Are You Home".

The lively and quick opening of "Insomniac" is nice, especially since the concessions to a rather marked guitar fury can be counted on one hand (see the entry "Perfect"), and also notable are the melodic openings of "Island" (one of the best) and the beautiful closure "Wasteland". We return to Muse territory with "Machine", but this time it's the subdued and melancholic ones of "Unintended", certainly not the baroque and exaggerated ones of the latest productions.

A good return for Amber Run, marking a small step forward compared to the still good debut and proposing them as a potential heavyweight name in the future alternative rock scene across the channel. If they manage to be less derivative and detach themselves from certain still too influential models in their sound, they could really soar.

Best track: Wastelands