by Dean Wolfe, Prog Dog Media. Released 2006
I feel like I’ve just come out of a shopping mall, but instead of bags and shoe boxes, I’m stuffing a mountain of musical concepts and ideas into my trunk. This is my first handshake with this band, and I’m glad I’m starting my listening experience with Pure Reason Revolution's debut album "The Dark Third".
This album is a really unique blending of influences. In the most general terms, it feels like indie rock, but one that ventures into the epic. Gosh, there’s so much to distill here: I hear Disney on weed. I hear psychedelia. I hear progressive rock. I hear Beach Boys-style pop. I hear electronica. I hear Zeppelin. I hear Steven Wilson/ Porcupine Tree...
I guess you could say this album—and maybe this band—is all about layers: heavy antique curtains, or a chiffon-layered cake.
Listening to this record has brought something important to mind: you really need to listen to a band’s album from start to finish. Everybody loves a good song, but it’s through the full body of their work that you really start to get to know a band. You start to get a sense of their strengths as musicians, but also who they are as a creative unit—their instincts, their ideas, their chemistry. You get to hear how they move from one idea to another, how they build an album, and ultimately, you get a taste of the full wingspan of a band’s psyche.
This point really hit home after my first listen to The Dark Third. For example, the album finishes with an amazingly subtle musical farewell—a phrase that you can only really appreciate if you’ve journeyed with the band from the first song to the last. It’s like skipping ahead and reading the final page of a book. You can know how it ends, but you don’t have the context. You need to experience the whole journey—all the twists and turns, all the contours—to really understand where that ending takes you. And to me, that’s the essence, and the fun of it. That’s why I’m here, frankly, telling you all this!
I guess you could say this album—and maybe this band—is all about layers: heavy antique curtains, or a chiffon-layered cake.
Listening to this record has brought something important to mind: you really need to listen to a band’s album from start to finish. Everybody loves a good song, but it’s through the full body of their work that you really start to get to know a band. You start to get a sense of their strengths as musicians, but also who they are as a creative unit—their instincts, their ideas, their chemistry. You get to hear how they move from one idea to another, how they build an album, and ultimately, you get a taste of the full wingspan of a band’s psyche.
This point really hit home after my first listen to The Dark Third. For example, the album finishes with an amazingly subtle musical farewell—a phrase that you can only really appreciate if you’ve journeyed with the band from the first song to the last. It’s like skipping ahead and reading the final page of a book. You can know how it ends, but you don’t have the context. You need to experience the whole journey—all the twists and turns, all the contours—to really understand where that ending takes you. And to me, that’s the essence, and the fun of it. That’s why I’m here, frankly, telling you all this!
The core lineup is Jon Courtney on vocals/guitar/keyboards, Chloë Alper on vocals/bass, Jamie Willcox on vocals/guitar, Jim Dobson on keyboards/guitar/bass/violin/vocals and Andrew Courtney on drums.
Instrumentally, there’s a lot of clean electric guitar—both strummed and picked—as well as some bottle-neck slide. That’s not to say the doors don’t get completely blown off the barn in bursts of classic-rock riffing and inspired sections throughout this very energetic album. There’s also a good smattering of violin, both clean and distorted, along with some very full-sounding string ensemble arrangements.
There are plenty of atmospheric passages too, featuring synths and echoing guitars, and piano gets its share of the spotlight. The production is dynamic and creative, handled by Paul Northfield, whose credits include Dream Theater, Rush, and Porcupine Tree. The drums are often very textural and treated or combined with electronic beats, with some interesting processing and effects applied at the mixing desk. There's some rainy and wet sounding cymbal accents from the drums.
Instrumentally, there’s a lot of clean electric guitar—both strummed and picked—as well as some bottle-neck slide. That’s not to say the doors don’t get completely blown off the barn in bursts of classic-rock riffing and inspired sections throughout this very energetic album. There’s also a good smattering of violin, both clean and distorted, along with some very full-sounding string ensemble arrangements.
There are plenty of atmospheric passages too, featuring synths and echoing guitars, and piano gets its share of the spotlight. The production is dynamic and creative, handled by Paul Northfield, whose credits include Dream Theater, Rush, and Porcupine Tree. The drums are often very textural and treated or combined with electronic beats, with some interesting processing and effects applied at the mixing desk. There's some rainy and wet sounding cymbal accents from the drums.
Compositionally, there are zero weak tracks or sections. The structure is often tumbling and unpredictable with ideas constantly shifting, colliding, and reconfiguring.
The vocals are a highlight, often heavily layered, with contrasting vocal lines making for a rich, textured sound. Of course, the two main singers—male and female—work exceptionally well together, complementing each other nicely.
Lyrically, The Dark Third is a pretty surreal album. It gets into the subconscious, dreams, sleep, and that blurry line between what's real and what's happening in your head. There's literary and philosophical influence, but the lyrics do feel like a stream of consciousness. Even the title refers to that ‘dark third’ of our lives—the time we spend asleep and dreaming.
So really, this is a satisfying, fairly dense and rich, high calorie album. I really enjoy the time I spend with it. It's a 4 out of 5 dog bones because it does everything an album is supposed to do, and when I get to the finish I usually want to start it all over again. The songs flow into each other and it has no weak or filler tracks. It's engaging and interesting at every turn, decked out with amazing vocal layers throughout.
The vocals are a highlight, often heavily layered, with contrasting vocal lines making for a rich, textured sound. Of course, the two main singers—male and female—work exceptionally well together, complementing each other nicely.
Lyrically, The Dark Third is a pretty surreal album. It gets into the subconscious, dreams, sleep, and that blurry line between what's real and what's happening in your head. There's literary and philosophical influence, but the lyrics do feel like a stream of consciousness. Even the title refers to that ‘dark third’ of our lives—the time we spend asleep and dreaming.
So really, this is a satisfying, fairly dense and rich, high calorie album. I really enjoy the time I spend with it. It's a 4 out of 5 dog bones because it does everything an album is supposed to do, and when I get to the finish I usually want to start it all over again. The songs flow into each other and it has no weak or filler tracks. It's engaging and interesting at every turn, decked out with amazing vocal layers throughout.
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