If I had to point out a disappointment of this recently concluded 2024, I would certainly indicate Pure Reason Revolution. I know I am going against the grain somewhat, given that it currently has the highest average on Progarchives and I have seen several social media posts placing it among the releases of the year, but it did not impress me as deeply as the previous ones.
The British indie-prog combo (if it can be called that) made a great comeback in the new decade after having thrown in the towel a decade earlier, when they cut short a career that was proving promising. They resurfaced with two albums that seemed even more inspired, evolved, and daring than the ones they left us with, as if the long break had done them only good. “Eupnea” and “Above Cirrus” left a nice impression on me, and I expected as much this time around.
Now I'm not sure if the departure (perhaps only temporary) of Chloe Alper played a decisive role, but “Coming Up to Consciousness” is a decidedly bare album, stripped to the bone. I don't want to call it “essential” or “minimalist” because these expressions are usually used in a positive sense, usually to praise the skill of the artist/band in extracting the most from a scheme of thin lines, but here Pure Reason Revolution didn't manage it very well. I would rather define it, with a disparaging connotation, as a “mannerist” album, because they limited themselves to a diligent little exercise or refined stylistic exercise.
Clean and rather predictable guitar lines, the same goes for the keyboard parts, mostly piano, they wanted to focus on simplicity and melody but without properly developing these characteristics; it's an unfinished simplicity, the melody is dull, it isn't bright, as if it weren't there. To be honest, melodic/harmonious aspect has never been their strong point (even though they have a melodic touch), on the contrary, it was often their weak point, melody certainly isn't the main attraction of this project, we've always been quite far from the scenic or fairy-like magnificence typical of neo-prog bands, you see, building the framework of the album precisely on the melody could not have been the happiest of choices.
Instead, all those elements that used to create that rough and effective sound package have been reduced to the bone or dismissed, so the cornerstone of their proposal is missing, precisely what had captivated me in previous works. Where have those abrasive guitars, those shrill and anguished synths, those psychedelic and hypnotic incursions, that sometimes dark atmosphere, that slightly hallucinogenic experimentation gone? It's surprising then to notice that the most interesting things present in this album are, believe it or not, the brief interludes placed here and there between one song and another, and the reason lies in the fact that it is precisely in those handfuls of seconds that those elements, timidly, resurface.
So now you might ask me... is it a bad album? No, in the end, it's listened to with a good dose of pleasure, but I struggled to understand it (or maybe I haven't understood it yet?) and only after many listens did I get its measure and accepted it for what it is — in the end, you just need to let yourself be lulled and dragged by its riffs, undoubtedly more restrained compared to the past. As I always say, bad or crappy music is something else, like reggaeton or trap, never prog. However, it doesn't go beyond a full pass, it gets a good 6.5, but it was clearly reasonable to expect more, it is their lowest point for sure. What worries me is that the band, reassured by the great feedback obtained, might feel justified to continue along this too bare line, turning the great things done before into regret.
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