Label: Classic Rock Legends

Tracks:

1. Something In Between (3:52)
2. Pure White Light (4:33)
3. Another Life (4:36)
4. Bitterness Burnt (4:56)
5. Caught In A Fold (3:52)
6. Simple Ways (6:13)
7. First Thought (4:46)
8. Passengers (6:05)
9. Distant Train (4:50)
10. Answer The Question (5:01)
11. Pass The Clock Part 1/2/3 (12:08)

Musicians:

• Bryan Josh / lead vocals, lead guitars, 6/12 string acoustic guitars
• Heather Findlay / lead / backing vocals, Bodhran, tambourines
• Iain Jennings / piano, Hammond organ, synthesisers, backing vocals
• Angela Goldthorpe / flute, recorders, backing vocals
• Liam Davison / electric / & acoustic guitars, slide guitar
• Andy Smith / bass guitar
• Jonathan Blackmore / drums

Guest musicians:

• Troy Donockley / Low Whistles, Penny Whistles, Uilleann Pipes, Bazouki
• Chris Leslie / violin
• Marissa Claughan / cello
• Damian Wilson / backing vocals
• Mark Atkinson / backing vocals

Step by step and silently, Mostly Autumn, are completing an already considerable discography based on good albums and always keeping a similar level, so these guys make a disc per year since they began their recording career in 1999.

"Passengers" is not too different from the previous discs of the band, simple songs, nothing to compare with the typical structural complexity of any progressive bands, but with good symphonic moments, basically Pink Floyd's inheritance.

Mostly Autumn is now a band with its own personality, although they do not offer anything new either. The excessive pinkfloydian references of the first album, now are far away.

The innovation in this album, would be the absence for the first time of the typical Celtic and festively track that, as a minimum, always were included in every album. In this case, we find folkie influences, certainly, but they remain more diluted among the abundant symphonic sounds.

In the album we can find basically typical tracks of the style that already we know about Mostly Autumn. Magnificent tracks as the precious symphonic ballad, "Another Life" performed by the most beautiful voice (though scanty), of Heather Findlay, as it happens in the majority of the tracks of this album. Without forgetting other triumphant tracks as the brilliant " Simple Ways ", or "Passengers", both very pinkfloydish, the instrumental super-symphonic "Distant Train" and the small 12 minutes suite, " Pass the Clock ". Also we can emphasize more folkie, "Bitterness Burnt".

The rest of songs are simple enough. Symphonic tracks but also near to conventional pop-rock standards. Surely on every Mostly Autumn's new disc there are included more tracks of this kind, but at the moment I think that it is not serious at all, because most of them are not bad at all as "Something in Between ", "Caught In a Fold ", "Answer The Question " or the nice ballad "First Thought".

In short, undoubtedly another Mostly Autumn's good album that passes to enrich the notable discography of the group. If you only look for the complexity in the progressive rock, forget this band, if on the contrary you are also capable to enjoy symphonic rock songs (don't forget it) simple but with quality, Mostly Autumn is your band.

Rating: 7/10

Ferran Lizana