• Rating:
"I Pain of Salvation disgust me…
…actually, I love them”.
This was the first thought that came to my mind as I was about to listen to the brand new "Falling Home"; a love/hate that allowed me to sit back and enjoy the album a bit prejudiced, I admit, but very hopeful.
I'll cut to the chase and say right away that my hopes, admittedly quite faint, were immediately disappointed.
I have loved this band since their inception, defining them as brilliant, innovative, imaginative, and they have always rewarded me with masterful and sometimes immense works (above all "Remedy Lane" and "Be", their masterpieces).
The first cracks were felt with "Scarsick (The Perfect Element Pt.II)," still listenable despite being qualitatively light years away from the first "The Perfect Element," then the collapse with the two disastrous chapters of "Road Salt," where the clear shift towards nonsensical rock/blues was evident.
This "Falling Home" is nothing other than an acoustic album recorded live in the studio where our band, now devastated in formation having lost all original members (only mainman Gildenlow remains), revisits pieces from the last era and a couple more dated ones, completely losing their way and incorporating influences of all kinds, from country to shuffle, blues to tango; not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you, but the question that arises is simple and not trivial: "to what end?"
Wasn't the magnificent acoustic live "12:5" from 2004 enough to pay an unplugged homage to the past?
(an album that captured a magical moment of the band, with incredible reinterpretations of wonderful pieces, especially the version of "Ashes" played in major).
Wasn't a restart necessary to convince everyone that the father/boss of POS hasn't dug his (artistic) grave yet but has bullets to fire?
Is this truly the sound mishmash (whose only merit is having a tracklist with the best songs from the last 3 albums and is partly saved only by the high quality of composition) that should make those who were disappointed and hurt by the stylistic shift of a band long considered among the top of "intelligent" and never trivial progressive rethink?
Daniel Gildenlow is a genius and he knows it very well, and it breaks my heart to hear how he struts by singing in 4 different styles in 2 seconds of a song or how he manages to give such a bland version as a coat in August of "Holy Diver" by Dio, with crooner's voice and little respect.
And not to mention "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed, as beautiful as always but in a version that I wouldn't play on a beach with an out-of-tune classical guitar.
The only original piece, the title track placed at the end, somehow gives hope, very (too?) intricate and could be a preview of the new direction Gildenlow seems to be aiming for the future, perhaps realizing the disaster made with the latest efforts.
And from there I would restart, giving a good listen to the first albums and taking a deep breath, before continuing in the most blatant mannerism and the desire to "show" what doesn't need to be shown (not least, I would also eliminate that annoying falsetto that has accompanied him for too long).
Essentially an album with great songs, excessive and redundant arrangements and zero (I say zero!) sense; a way, in my opinion, to fill a time gap awaiting a new work that could either relaunch them or, I hope it never happens, completely sink them.
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