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One year after their brilliant album
“Goodbye to Dusk, Farewell to Dawn”, The Amber Light are back
with a new EP “Stranger & Strangers”. Expectations were high, so I
could hardly wait to listen to this EP when it arrived. But what a
disappointment this little disc turned out to be. No traces of
soundscapes or Radiohead, Pineapple Thief, Coldplay references as on
the first disc. Especially the first two songs are clearly written
to get some radio airplay. Which means: short tracks, no trace of
progressive music, not the emotional built-up which I liked so much
in their songs. I can’t even help to hear the Cure and especially
The Smiths in these first tracks “Softly There, Everywhere” and
“Still Going Nowhere”.
But then there’s the title track and suddenly The “old” Amber Light
is back. More then 14 minutes of sheer delight, full of emotion,
slowly building up, with lots of changes and great melodies. Well,
it could have done with 10 minutes because of the sometimes too many
repeats of certain riffs, but I couldn’t help but release a big sigh
of relief after having struggled through the first two tracks.
“Hide Inside” is an acoustic, live version of a track from their
previous album, recorded for a radiosession in May 2004 in
Frankfurt. Not bad at all, but I prefer the original, because of the
stronger emotional outbursts on the first album.
So, if you’re a fan, you need to buy this EP, but if you want to get
to know The Amber Light you’re far better off with their full album.
Let’s consider this EP as an intermediate release and wait for their
second masterpiece when they release their next full album. |
