Pelican
What We All Come To Need

Poor Pelican: releasing two authentic masterpieces ("Australasia" the first, and "The fire in our throat will beckon the thaw" the second), then attempting change by hardening, dampening, metallizing, diminishing, and everyone against it, everyone out shouting disappointment (not that I didn’t do it too, eh?), for what was, is, and will always be that controversial "City of echoes," so distant from the previous works as to be almost embarrassing at times, so insipid, so full of compositional paucity as to also be boring and uninspiring.

Two years later, they return, and where do we find them? Even at Southern Lord's home, which opened the collaboration just a couple of months ago with the EP “Ephemeral,” containing the title track present in this latest full-length, and two other compositions. There seems to be no affinity between record label and band, but something changes, something moves again, something begins to shine again after dark moments that only predicted the abyss.

"What we all come to need" is not a masterpiece, we're still there, the early records are light years away and here a certain experienced hand is evident, but it is definitely better, I would dare to say much better than its predecessor: there’s no flatness, there’s no sense of boredom, instead, there are emotions, interesting rises again, there is a beautiful and enveloping psychedelic aura, there is an all-pervading darkness that hasn’t been felt since the aforementioned "Australasia," and there are important collaborations (not that these are necessarily a guarantee of a product's success): Aaron Turner, Greg Anderson, Ben Verellen, Allen Epley who lends his voice in the last track of the album “Final breath”, the first composition to use such an instrument in their entire career.

As said pleasant, well above sufficiency and full of exquisite class, but this was somewhat expected, they are still them after all.

Sit down, comfortably, listen to it and let it glide over your skin, it is not excluded that it may captivate you, reserving you some wonderful and very pleasant surprises.

Welcome back on the right tracks, guys, we still expect great things!