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"Meer offers us a pleasant surprise with a "Playing House" with an appreciable retro 70's scent."
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4/5
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The Norwegian progressive octets are not numerous... Founded a few years ago, the group Meer has evolved in this form and has released one LP and one EP before coming back to us at the beginning of this year 2021 with its new album "Playing Home". The formation includes two singers, a pianist, a rhythm section bass-drums and a couple alto - violin which makes the originality of the Meer sound, bringing an undeniable atmospheric asset.
This particularity allows the group to endow himself a rather pop-accented vocal style with orchestral finery that brings their music into a progressive register reminiscent of the excellent The Addiction Dream: the chiselled arrangements, the variety of tone and the complementarity of the two singers - Johanne and Knut Kippersund - are marvellous, oscillating between distancing and commitment ('Beehive') or sensitivity (the guitar/voice 'Where Do We Go From Here?', the latent irony of 'Child').
If the use of the violin sometimes refers to Kansas (the opening of 'Lay it Down'), the relative breadth of the string arrangements can evoke The Dear Hunter ('Songs of Us'), even in the care taken in the evolution within the pieces which, without being very long (six minutes at most), preserve an interesting progression, made legible by obvious vocal harmonies. The whole is done in a slightly retro atmosphere tinted 70's, sometimes at the edge of psychedelia (the instrumental of 'Lay it Down'), including in the production, a bit too muffled (especially the drums).
Nevertheless, the quality of the melodies catches the listener from the inaugural 'Picking up the Pieces', or on the more mainstream 'Across the Ocean' and all along the eleven tracks of the album which, without reaching the emotional vertigo of the complex progressive opus, is nonetheless a pleasant and comfortable surprise, with a vaguely nostalgic addictive charm that is quite pleasant. - Official website
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TRACK LISTING:
01. Picking Up The Pieces
02. Beehive
03. All At Sea
04. Songs Of Us
05. Child
06. You Were A Drum
07. Honey
08. Across The Ocean
09. She Goes
10. Where Do We Go From Here
11. Lay It Down
LINEUP:
Åsa Ree: Violon
Eivind Strømstad: Guitares
Ingvild Nordstoga Eide: Alto
Johanne Margrethe Kippersund Nesdal: Chant
Knut Kippersund Nesdal: Chant
Mats Lillehaug: Batterie
Morten Strypet: Basse
Ole Gjøstøl: Claviers
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(0) MIND(S) FROM OUR READERS
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Top of the page
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(3) COMMENT(S)
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READERS
4.6/5 (7 view(s))
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STAFF:
4/5 (6 view(s))
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IN RELATION WITH MEER
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OTHER REVIEWS
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OTHER(S) REVIEWS ABOUT MEER
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