Calling your band You And I kind of makes it obvious the listener can expect at least a couple of Yes references. I mean, one could easily call his band Siberian Khatru or Close To The Edge as well to make it even more obvious! Luckily those "logical" Yes influences have now left with the third release by this Hungarian fivepiece. Still fronted by Fanni Völgyessy Szomor, the album doesn’t follow the ideal marketing strategy which normally says the first track on every album should be a killer. Instead "Don’t Ever Fear" opens with the breathing of Fanni gradually turning into music. The atmosphere is solemn and ambient before Karoly Dorogi introduces his Rickenbacker bass whilst dashes of Solaris enter the You and I arena. Not really sure whether this is a concept album or not, but at regular intervals a narrator steps in trying to urge the listener to search for her/his true soul. In "Gods Of Death" the rhythm consists of firm rock oriented chops halted by precise breaks and great sounding synths with piano stepping in to introduce the healing calm. By means of a vocal intermezzo and pure classical piano "Gods Of Death" steers towards a carnival of atmospheres. Talking of diversity! To keep the magic floating throughout this album, the band has decided to also add a couple of instrumentals next to near "a cappella" material. That way the album becomes more accessible for the foreign listener as listening to the Hungarian language within the prog format isn’t your everyday cup of tea. The next part of this album kind of has to be seen as a different chapter as it concerns North, East, South and West. Whilst "North" is more of a vocal exercise, "East" runs on a mere strict tempo demanding singer Fanni to remain close to the original instead of making way for lose improvisation. Here guitarist Zsolt Kosztyu flirts with the Metheny sound before settling together with Gergo Szabo’s organ. "South" for You and I means getting their influences from the Mediterranean introducing handclaps and acoustic instruments to enhance this nice, melodic instrumental. The journey closes with "West" which is kind of built around a naïve melody. Even by adding a fair amount of keyboard sounds this song doesn’t lift itself to the kind of material we know this band is capable of producing. The "exit" comes in the form of the instrumental "Matrix." This rhythmic song kind of reminds me of the magnitude of the Roman Empire and would be suitable for a remake of Spartacus. A band like You and I should be able to deliver a more international sounding album with an original sound we can find all over the album. On Exit the music sounds like a patchwork of different ideas brought together by the various members of the band. The end result sounds more like a posthumous release of leftovers and B-sides rather than a joint effort of newly penned material. Why not go for the English language as well to finally deliver the album we’ve been waiting for. We all know the band can do it! Reviewed by: John 'Bo Bo' Bollenberg |
