Neverness - Cuentos de Otros Mundos Posibles. 2007 Spain

Neverness are a band from northwestern Spain, who released a trio of albums that have largely been overlooked by the progressive rock contingent. I bought this CD not long after it was released, thought it was OK/decent, and filed it away for a future listen. That listen has now happened... nearly a decade later. Proves once again, that sometimes the best thing to do is to wait for a different time and place before passing quick judgment, as the album now sounds great to my ears.

What Neverness has done is almost the impossible: Copy mid to late 70s Pink Floyd... and not be dull. I happen to really like that era of Pink Floyd, but it seems every modern band that goes on to emulate that sound misses the dynamics, and ends up just plodding along at a snail's pace. Neverness has not only captured the spirit of Wish You Were Here and Animals, but also the analog instrumentation and production. The music is heavy on atmosphere, and light on pyrotechnics, so it requires the right melancholic mood to appreciate. Other than perhaps 'Muro de Cristal', all the tracks here avoid the modern music trap, where 90's indie songcraft has penetrated too deep. And even that track has long flights of instrumental work to offset the potential snoozefest. The rest is very consistent and superb. I'm now curious what their albums are like, though it appears the debut may have been taken out of the oven a bit early.

Ownership: CD: 2007 Musea (France). Nice 12 page booklet with recording details, lyrics, photos, and images.

2//08; 1//13; 7/5/16 (new entry)