The Answer - Solas (Album review)

The Answer - Solas

10.28.16

Album review

The Answer latest studio release was a remarkable achievement, ditching the produced sound of New Horizon in favor of more stripped down sonics, a fantastic showcase for the dominating hard blues songs. Rightfully hailed (by me, at least) as their best album so far, Raise A Little Hell featured an all-killer no-filler track listing: Red, Long Live The Renegades, the title track, Aristocrat, Whiplash all showed the band at their peak. Having witnessed them live during the subsequent tour, my impression was confirmed by an eye and ear testimony: albeit a little short, their Paris set was truly energetic.

In fact, the band was slowly descending through dark days. While truly appreciated and supported by the classic rock loving crowd, mainstream success was escaping them and the initial exposure gained by their knighting by peers Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers and AC/DC whom their opened for back in 2009, was fading away. The band’s growing trauma was fueled by personal issues, notably when singer Cormac Neeson nearly lost his young son to a serious illness.

“Do we just make another rock record and go through the motions?’ No one was excited by that. Everybody was burnt-out by that point. It felt like we’d been in a van, just looking at each other, for ten years. We were thinking, ‘How do we move this on?’ And we didn’t have the answer”.

 

The Answer’s new album, SOLAS, appears as the direct product of these dark days, an aural therapy for a band desperately searching for light. Interestingly, we’re not in St Anger territory here. Our Irish rockers opt for a much produced sound, with vastly layered sonic landscapes rather than a stripped down record. This production choice does wonders on Beautiful World or the title track. The usual Zeppelin comparison comes to mind, and sounds definitely well deserved. One rightfully wonders how this sound will translate in live performances.

“Cormac allows himself to be vulnerable. As a frontman, that’s very hard to do, because you’re meant to be the strong guy at the front who has no weakness. All my favourite lyricists, that’s what they do. They bare their souls, for better or worse.”

Lyrics reveal the difficult context in which the album was composed and recorded. This is not your foot-stomping joyful rock album, folks. There’s a very moody, grim and, let’s say it, sad and depressing atmosphere on SOLAS. The title track quasi shamanic chants set the tone masterfully, but that’s truly the lyrics that convey this impression. “What the light don’t fill, the darkness kills”.

Regarding that idea, Tunnel is perhaps exhibit #1:”Every day, we get further down the tunnel/Every day, it’s so hard to see/Maybe life shouldn’t be such a struggle/ Every day, it’s so hard…”

Interestingly, even the most “uplifting” tracks fail to deviate much from this mood: the reworking of Battlecry (now in two words), Real Life Dreamers and Untrue Colors all sound as if there’s an unescapable threat just behind your back. In a logical kind of way, these tracks are also the less convincing, with Untrue Colors being pretty awful. I’m not very fond of the reworked Battle Cry either: the added Gaelic (?) chants are a bit too much, and I loved the rhythm of the original better. The band thought otherwise –the original version wasn’t finished and logically was relegated as a “digital b-side”.

Thankfully, the high points by far overtake the low ones. A track of note is the acoustic driven In This Land which has really interesting dynamics and evokes countryside and highlands horizons, thanks to its intricate guitar melodies and its catchy chorus. This track could be a moderately successful folk rock single, if they deem it worthy of receiving a music video.

                All in all, SOLAS is a great album. It’s weird to me to think that it should be seen as a comeback album considering that I see Raise A Little Hell as their best by far. It’s nearly impossible to rank among their output because it showcases a vastly different sound. Searching for the light among the darkness, who knows which path our Irish rockers will follow next? The Answer lies ahead.

Bonus tracks:

As usual, The Answer covers all bases and tries to please them all by releasing the album in various configurations, most of them offering additional content.

As far as I know, the Pledgemusic exclusive CD-version is the most complete, with three bonus tracks (the Japanese release features the same three tracks).

The acoustic version of In This Land doesn’t add much to the standard version. It’s simply a remixing of the same take in a stripped down fashion. If The Answer have indeed a “tradition” of releasing acoustic versions of their songs, this rendition is pretty disappointing.

The demo of Light In Darkness (do you see a lyrical pattern here?) is a far more interesting track. I would have loved to have this on the track listing instead of Untrue Colors, for instance.

The final track is a great cover of Pink Floyd’s Money. Initially, I thought it would be a recording of their live performance of the song at Abbey Road but it’s in fact a really cool studio performance. The live version is superior, but this one is great to have. It does detract a bit from the flow and the atmosphere, so it’s nice that it was put at the end of the album.