13/11/2024
Another glowing review for Paul Roland's latest album "Morbid Beauty", this time from Sebastyen Defiolle at Songazine.fr. You can buy it on LP or CD from Blue Matter Records...
"October 28, 2024
Paul Roland – MORBID BEAUTY (Blue Matter Records, 2024)
Paul Roland's music has something timeless about it. Navigating between baroque (neo)folk, garage-psychedelic rock and gothic rock, we travel to distant landscapes, forgotten realms and ancient times. We discover the stories of dark, colorful, fascinating and intriguing characters such as Doctor Cream, Walter the occultist and Miss Emilia Saint-John, the adventures and adventures of sky explorers ("Wyndham Hill") and highwaymen ("Captain Blood").
If this latest album, with the sweet name of Morbid Beauty, is no exception to the rule, there is a notable difference with Mister Roland's previous works, in terms of production. The eccentric singer himself explained that he wanted "something different", more "raw". If we find psychedelic, even oriental, folkloric atmospheres – typical of our English dandy – the arrangements are essentially articulated around a simple formation: guitar, bass, organ and drums. A violin and a piano sometimes adding a folk touch to the album.
Opening with oriental and mystical sounds, "The Stars in their Millions" is a long rise of acid rock, powerful and tense, where psychedelic organs, distant voices, haunting violin, fuzz guitars and tribal drums gradually join the ceremony. We are as if bewitched, caught up in this long, dark and ritualistic dance. A real success. Certainly one of the highlights of the album, and one of Paul Roland's best tracks.
If "The Stars in their Millions" seems to transport us to a distant elsewhere, the tracks "Candy Man", "Mephisto's Blues" and "Graveyard Train" (there is a live acoustic version from 1986, on the reissue of A Cabinet of Curiosities / Happy Families released by Syborgmusic in 2009) bring us back to a reality tinged with garage-rock and psychedelic horror. All noisy guitars out (the frenetic finale of "Candy Man"!!), these three tracks, in a more "classical" vein, evoke some atmospheres dear to the English dandy on Duel, Roaring Boys and recent albums like 1313 Mockingbirds Lane and Lair of the White Worm.
"The Light Divine" is a rewrite of "Journey to the Centre of the Mind", released on the Roaring Boys & Sarabande compilation in 2012. Like "The Stars in their Millions", it's a long, dense and magnetic track, all in crescendo, with an atmospheric violin that guides the track towards a hypnotic drum-violin-flute finale.
But the atmospheres follow one another but are not alike, like on the magnificent "Wilful Angel", with subtle and melancholic folk arrangements, where again the drums with tribal accents add something hypnotizing to the track.
The album ends with "Godzilla", which at times reminds us of the excellent "Nosferatu" (on Duel, released in 1990). A track characterized by a heavy and disturbing bass and an explosive drums, ending on a calm but tense ending... Like the whole album which brilliantly mixes light and dark, psychedelic and gothic atmospheres.
With Morbid Beauty, Paul Roland offers us a high-flying album, certainly one of his best, revealing once again his talent for writing songs with rich and timeless atmospheres. A must for all psychedelic rock lovers and all fans of the English dandy."
La musique de Paul Roland a quelque chose d’intemporel. Naviguant entre le (néo)folk baroque, le rock garage-psychédélique et le rock gothique, nous voyageons vers des paysages lointains, des royaumes oubliés et des temps anciens. Nous découvrons les histoires de personnages sombres, colorés...
Simply two friends releasing vinyl albums and CDs that we really like.
