Flicker
How Much Are You Willing to Forget?

Premise no. 1. This is my first review. Criticisms are welcome, but please don’t slaughter me! Premise no. 2. Since I'm clever, I chose an album that if 200 people bought it, that's a lot. However, this shouldn't stop you, if you're even a tiny bit curious; search and you shall find... and then there's always wiki. Premise no. 3 NO MORE PREMISES!

How Much Are You Willing to Forget was released in August 2012, so it's been 10 years already, the debut and only album so far from a band boasting the name Flicker, a term that's almost untranslatable. Perhaps the most apt translation is “glimmer, brief flash,” but it also relates to computer screens, comprised of 4 lively young men, obviously English, led by Ellis Mordecai. However, the young men aren't very lively. Ellis is slightly overweight and the general impression is that they're all well past thirty. On second thought, such a late debut could be a good thing: and indeed it is.

The album is edgy, dynamic, excellently arranged, and brilliantly played. It opens with a syncopated crescendo leading into the first real track: “Go.” The “kids” have learned the various lessons from the past: guitar with an acid riff just right, breaks, clean but well-used voice, harmonized backing vocals, and overall sophisticated, elaborate writing but never pompous... in short, everything's there. Next is “Out There,” a bit of piano, the voice becomes sweet, almost a whisper, “You don’t listen well, can explain how you feel?” Ellis asks us, then closes by shouting “I don’t need an answer.” The track builds, dips, then rises again to the central solo and the chorus that ends the song, where Mordecai showcases an excellent use of his vocal cords while probing the idiosyncrasies and incommunicability of our society (this is the recurring theme of the album; it would be interesting to read the lyrics, but they're unavailable). The following “My Empty Head” is, in my opinion, the best track: a very acid start, then an understated first part, well-blended chords, almost jazzy, leading into a bridge with the usual backing vocals and syncopations, up to the ostinato of the second part, a harmony that seems simple, a powerful crescendo of violins, guitars, xylophones, and more: it's true that sometimes the voice is unnecessary.

“Counting Time” opens with a double arpeggio of bass and guitar, violins in the background and then the singing where the voices of different verses are almost overlapped. The chorus is a bit predictable, but then the outro with arpeggio becomes thoroughly enjoyable, where the classic four-four time of the drums mingles with odd times handled by the rest of the band. Next is “Everywhere Face,” the classic radio hit (rightly so), beautiful melody and even a nice animated puppet video, for those who can find it online (way before S. Wilson’s “Drive Home”!). From here on, in my opinion, the inspiration wanes: “Falling Down” feels a bit familiar, but the desperate ending has its own merit, “Breathless” instead gives the guitar soul a chance to emerge with a gentle intro played on an Ovation (but I could be wrong), then a delicate acoustic ballad, leading into the usual acid riff and the more rock part of the track. “Is This Real Life,” the last piece of just voice and piano (and violins), worthily closes the solitary ride of Flicker, who then vanish from the scene. Who knows what they could have done after...

What kind of album is Are You Willing…? Hard to label, perhaps a not so hidden love for the progressive of Genesis and Yes, but definitely an album from 2012, no nostalgia, just a strong desire to make music to evoke emotions and, why not, reflections.