ANATHEMA: UNIVERSAL (2013)
1) Untouchable, Part 1; 2)
Untouchable, Part 2; 3) Thin Air; 4) Dreaming Light; 5) Lightning Song; 6) The
Storm Before The Calm; 7) Everything; 8) A Simple Mistake; 9) The Beginning And
The End; 10) Universal; 11) Closer; 12) A Natural Disaster; 13) Deep; 14) One
Last Goodbye; 15) Flying; 16) Fragile Dreams; 17) Panic; 18) Emotional Winter /
Wings Of God; 19) Internal Landscapes; 20) Fragile Dreams 2.
The title and track
listing for Anathema's first live album may be a little confusing. Apparently,
it was first released under the title Untouchable,
on four sides of vinyl, with 12 tracks in all. Later, the entire concert,
recorded at the Theatre of Philippopolis in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (don't ask me
why, but I guess it has something to do with traditional Eastern European and
Soviet enthusiasm for mass-marketed Crunchy Spiritual Rock), was released on
DVD and Blu-ray under the title of Universal
— and some of the video editions also
featured the entire audio of the concert, which comes up to a whoppin' two
hours and sixteen minutes of Anathema bliss. This is the edition I will be
talking about: I couldn't bear watch
the entire show (spirituality overload!), but I did listen to the entire
concert, though, frankly, I'm not sure why.
Because even with the
Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying these guys, their live shows (at
this point, at least — I have no idea about the early doom metal days) merely
recreate the studio originals, as close as possible, which is still not close enough
if you remember that they have no Steven Wilson with them on stage. Some of the
trickiest studio overdubs cannot be recreated at all (for instance, the
«electric storm» in ʽThe Storm Before The Calmʼ, here pretty much shorn of the
electronics that made that instrumental interlude so great), and those that
can... well, since this is not about improvisation, or about toughening up the
original sound, or about giving the songs additional dimensions, all you can
say is, "gee, well, at least here's proof that somebody actually loves Anathema!" Because the
audience does go wild.
At the very least,
they could have arranged an interesting setlist — seeing as how Anathema's entire
career gradually and logically went from «pitch black» to «moody dark» to
«light angelic», it would have been a great idea to arrange the whole show in
precisely that order: start off with some early metal, then gradually lighten
up and land the show with ʽUniversalʼ or any of those other anthemic
we-saw-the-light tracks. Instead, they do exactly the opposite: the first half of the show consists of
almost nothing but songs from the last two albums, and the second half consists of a bunch of earlier hits, so that you start out with hope and finish with
despair — how rational is that, given that the band's current agenda is to give
hope rather than take it away? I admit that there are no reasons whatsoever to
expect particularly intelligent decisions about musical logistics from a band
as naively idealistic as Anathema, but come on guys — do not undermine your own
artistic ideology at least.
No comments on
individual songs whatsoever, but I am
glad that the album is an official acknowledgement of the fact that ʽFragile
Dreamsʼ is this band's quintessential signature song for all times: not only do
they finish the show with it, but they play two
versions of it (first the reworked soft one and then the original hard one). Allegedly
the fans were quite happy about it. Everything was nice, the vibes were great,
the band members were very polite and friendly, we all went to Heaven and back,
and the degree of spiritual enlightenment in the country of Bulgaria temporarily
went through the roof, even though the ancient Theatre of Philippopolis
probably does not have a roof, which makes things even easier. Bottomline: you
probably had to be there to make the experience worthwhile, but then why on
Earth should anyone bother going to an Anathema concert? They don't even
provide space for a mosh pit or anything.
Since he keeps bringing him up, I'll assume George likes Steven Wilson the musician as well. It would be nice to read more detailed thoughts, but an at least mild implied thumbs up will probably have to suffice for this lifetime.
ReplyDeleteHe clearly likes Wilson as a producer, but that doesn't necessarily imply that he likes Wilson's own music. There are millions of people who love The Dark Side of the Moon without having any interest in The Alan Parsons Project.
Delete