Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I have some problems here with Halcyon High.  His voice gets kind of lost in the background on Close Your Eyes, See The Light.  I’m not quite sure what he’s saying, or even if it's supposed to be intelligible. The guitar melody plays like a loop -- over and over -- and the cymbals do the same. There’s a static build-up at the end but to no avail.

There’s this constant echo going on in most of the songs on To Be Infinite.  After awhile it's distracting and, at times, annoyingly overboard. Then there's the space-sounds passing every so often... like a spaceship passing.  This whole motif might fit with the cover graphics (a black canvas of white stars), but it doesn't so much jive with the music. So when that noise passes by, instead of being part of the fun, it's all I can hear and every time it becomes more bothersome.

Each song takes forever to get rolling. There is no pick up anywhere I can find. It comes off like random notes were strung together to waste time before the singer arrived to participate. The only example where this ploy almost works is Iris, thanks to a slightly catchy guitar melody.  But alas, after four minutes it gets to be too much... and thenan organ kicks in with the echo again and they play against each other as they swirl toward a black hole of talent. It’s like a background track to a static dance routine.

To Be Infinite just made no sense to me whatsoever. I tried to listen to it comfortably, but there were too many random twangs for me to concentrate on their message. I thought it was interesting how they used an old radio clip in the song The Aftermath and Damage Done but once again the sound was still way too repetitive (anybody spotting a trend yet?).

The only redeeming note I could find was in the last song, Soul Slides Away, where the singer sounds somewhat like Patrick Park. I didn't really get the lyrics here -- I think there was a reference to spirituality, I couldn't be sure.  A good song, but here again is an example of my confusion... it's in the lyrics:  “I wait for a sign, for stars to… shine, for arms to turn to leaves.”

I think it’s great that they got whatever they were trying to say on this album off their chests.  It kind fo felt like something the band had to make, to be set with themselves. and as a concept alone, I kind of get it.  But the guys in Halcyon High cannot expect this to sell if they made it for themselves and only themselves, without considering the public -- the ones that will eventually listen to To Be Infinite and end up utterly confused like I was. There are no lyrics to quote. There is no solid guitar. The piano and other instruments are all off in their tone color. I was not a fan.