Reviewed by Oscar Hyde

Harpenden's Evergreen are a young post-rock band who you may well have read about on this website or heard their "Go" which got some Cross Rhythms airplay. This is their full length debut and sounds somewhere between Explosions In The Sky and Cool Hand Luke, with extra bells and whistles. 'The Mountain The Giant The Sea' is a concept album, telling a fairly archetypal story applied as Christian allegory. The lyrics are straightforward and the story's pacing is patchy, which deadens the impact somewhat, but then again, it wouldn't be post-rock without broad and sweeping themes, and the music itself does wonders to stir the emotions anyway - I defy you not to be moved by the "come home!" chorus sprinkled across tracks. A lot of work has gone into making a formulaic genre sound fresh: classical instruments of all sorts make appearances; the piano's inspired by not just rock and jazz but traditional Japanese melodies; rising and falling rhythms blend into and out of each other. The album's story hinges around track five, "The Giant", unfortunately the weakest track (though by no means bad): the music's much too inspiring for the lyrics' terror, or even the chorus's despair; nevertheless, the band cribs Mono's iconic guitar tone and adds triumphant brass fanfare to make the crescendo work despite its flaws. Even the weak spots here sound gorgeous, and even if the album isn't transcendent, it truly is lovely.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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