| The
Review |
I have this bad habit of ascribing to bands the glorious
title of "a better" this or that. Yesterday And Today was
"a better" Humble Pie, Racer X was "a better" Judas Priest
(Sorry about the Metal references. I just picked those off
the top of my head), you know? And you know what I'm going
to say next, don't you?***
The Swedish duo Carptree is a better Marillion, plus
Carptree has all these little stylistic elements of Supertramp,
Pink Floyd, The Beatles, XTC and even Lazuli going for them.
They prefer to produce a floating dream sound, but when that
dream crashes to the ground as in "Burn To Something New"
or "This Is Home", the weight and the gravitas of this band
is increased exponentially like a small meteorite creating
a huge crater. I'd been trying to avoid hearing Carptree for
a year or two now, I guess. I heard stuff like "they sound
like Genesis in the …And Then There Were Three days". Or,
that "they sound just like Marillion". So I open the mail
a couple of days ago and there it was. It's finally happened
and I've had no choice.***
Well, after a first listen by a neophyte to the band,
the neophyte is intrigued and moved, well, just a bit. With
each new song one feels like he or she is setting out on some
epic journey to an unknown destination. Carptree is quite
adept at creating moods that completely capture the listener
and draw them in. Basically a duo of keyboardist Carl Westholm
and vocalist Niclas Flinck, Carptree create wonderfully nuanced
and brilliantly arranged nuggets of, uhh, Nu-Emo-Progressive-Pop-Metal?
Let's just call it good music.***
Flinck is an unusually emotive and engaging singer. I
think he sounds nothing like Gabriel, but he shares Gabriel's
penchant for sometimes theatrical presentation of the lyrics.
Westholm is a fine pianist and keyboardist in general. He
produces most of the melodic content of Carptree and his compositions
are usually quite dense and involved though the albums early
tunes begin sparse and build layer by layer, unlike some of
the discs later tunes which start out in grandeur and still
continue to build to dizzying heights. There seems to be not
a wasted note anywhere on this release, everything in its
place in perfect sonic order. The duo is augmented by a number
of well chosen sidemen for this project, well chosen because
each and every one of them seems to be on just the same wavelength
as Flinck and Westholm. Every note is concise and I'd be surprised
if everything wasn't scored out by Westholm.***
Man Made Machine starts out great, has some surprises
as you go along and then it goes out with a bang. I say there's
not a bad tune on this disc but I do have some I favor more
than others, the first number "Titans Clash Aggressively To
Keep An Even Score" and it's follow up, the beautiful "Sunshine
Waters". Getting a bit more aggressive as things move on,
I love the title track and, of course, "Burn To Something
New", "In The Centre Of An Empty Space" and the albums finale,
its pantheon, its penultimate work, "This Is Home".***
I held out for a long time and now that I've given in,
I've got to admit how impressed I am with this duos enormous
talent and their sophisticated approach to their song craft.
And what's the deal with Sweden anyhow? There seems to be
a good prog band hanging out on every street corner with more
coming every day.***
Whatever they're doing over there, we need to pay attention
to it. And apparently, we need to pay more attention to Carptree
as well.***
RATING: 4.5/5***
©Thomas Karr April 19,2006
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