ANATHEMA — The Optimist (review)

Album · 2017 · Non-Metal

2.5/5 · 2021-06-08
Peacock Feather

All of a sudden, brave creators from Liverpool decide to go back to their ideological roots, and not just anywhere, but straight to the fan-controversial A Fine Day to Exit, and decide to continue the story of the lyrical hero who eventually (spoiler!) changed his mind to drown in the ocean near the beach in San Diego, whose coordinates gave the name to intro of the Optimist. To be honest, I find this approach a little strange, because for AFDtE, as for me, it would be good to remain exactly as it was conceived by the "anathemists" themselves, unsaid, with an open ending, giving the listener the right to choose the fate of the main character. Besides, isn't a return to the past, a rollback - not a betrayal of their own principles, dogmas for the band itself, even if only in lyrical terms?

And to hell with the concept itself, with the lyrical component, although, of course, there are hardly more lines here than in the conceptual predecessor. Let's turn to the musical component. What have the eternal prophets presented to us on a saucer, who are fit to create their own religion and anathematize every parishioner for good, though known only to the group, purposes? And then out of my mouth comes a desperate and hopeless: "Eh, how come?". First, the "electronic" ending of the last album did not receive proper development. Although I admit initially that this is all subjective by and large, but still Leaving It Behind and instrumental San Francisco look much weaker than Distant Satellites and Take Shelter. At the point of the route marked by the city in the style of disco, the band so generally sounded almost like the eternally despised Coldplay, with whom the band was sometimes compared in the context of recent albums, although even a hedgehog can understand that Anathema wrote songs many times better. Here, the group took a serious step back.

As for the classic songs, the group again, for the fourth time in a row, writes the same thing, trying to cross out the logical ending in the form of the title song for the group from the same Distant Satellites, with the difference that the melodies have become weaker and more nondescript. I don't know what the situation is, whether Danny is in a state of mind, which is about the time of recording the album, caught another mental problems, or in the long course of recording the album itself. A sense of deja vu is present even among the songs themselves, when Endless Ways and The Optimist begin almost identically, despite the fact that they follow each other.

It's funny, but at times the Optimist still does not disappoint, but pleasantly surprises. Post-rock song Springfield is really beautiful with its appropriate cold beauty (perhaps the best song on the album), Ghosts and Wildfires adequately accumulate a mixture of the classic sound of Anathema and subtle inclusions of electronics, and Close Your Eyes along with You're Not Alone from the last album can rightfully be considered as the most unusual song of the group. Beautiful and elegant dark jazz, which would like more timekeeping.

At the same time, I have no questions about the technical side of the execution. Everything is as always good and verified. The only thing that bothers me (and the band lives, unfortunately, confirm this) is that Vinnie has started to give up on his vocals. Lee Douglas, on the other hand, remains at her old, very high level, and this time there's a hell of a lot of her on the album itself. Yes, I am certainly happy to hear her wonderful, feminine voice, but in comparison with past albums, she was somehow indecently given a lot of solo numbers. An attempt to equalize the rights of vocalists in order to bend under the current social trends? In fact, it's a consequence, as I said, of Vinnie's declining vocal range.

If Anathema were not in double demand as post-progressive rock prophets and undisputed masters of their craft, it would be possible to give up on this under-sequel of A Fine Day to Exit, because it really does not deserve the level of such a beautiful and diverse album, just as it does not deserve the level of its predecessors, which are among the best albums of Anathema. Alas, the reality is that with this album, my favorite English people from Merseyside have definitely failed. As if The Optimist have become a controversial end of the history of the beautiful band, as it was with Porcupine Tree or Isis, and everything is going to this, given that the band went on indefinite leave, and Danny announced a new solo album and a project called Weather Systems, declared as "a continuation of the legacy of the previous group".