MELANCHOLICS ANONYMOUS – Rumour Den. CD review by Robert Craven
MELANCHOLICS ANONYMOUS – RUMOUR DEN.
CD review by Robert Craven.
Founded in 2000, Rumour Den independently released the single ‘Under a cloud’ which garnered both critical acclaim & the financial means to develop ‘Melancholics Anonymous’ into an album. http://musicianstogether.com/video/7AS4U864NS14/Under-A-Cloud
Hailing from Antrim, Song-writer A.J. Gilmore & Guitarist Steve Simms finished the album in 2001 & through a series of twists & turns now have the album released ten years later.
Taking their name from a line from Jim Morrison’s lyric ‘Crawling King Snake’, Rumour Den’s album ‘Melancholics Anonymous’ draws on similar dark themes & weaves them into a remarkable album that for me has shades of Peter Gabriel / Steve Hogarth, post-Fish Marillion and with a careful measure of Radiohead grunge added. The album’s production is excellent & never at any stage do you feel you are listening to a demo tape; loops, sequencing and effects are used sparingly to compliment the feel & other worldliness of Gilmore’s songs.
The opening track ‘Under a cloud’, the successful independent release, sets the album’s stall out. Gilmore’s vocals are strong & convey raw melancholy without becoming mawkish, and the band measure the track out without over-playing their hand.
Like ‘Under a Cloud’ each following track is carefully executed & not sacrificed in favour of radio friendly airplay allowing Gilmore’s vocals & dark tales to unfold in a natural fashion.
‘Scared of dying’ is reminiscent of Stiltskin & allows Gilmore give his voice a full stretch.
‘Down by degrees’ is stripped down almost to vocals & guitar, haunting in it’s delivery.
For me ‘Nadir’ is outstanding both lyrically and musically and propels the album, ‘House of cards’, though short, punches through breaking up the overall melancholic themes throughout. ‘Guilty Days’ is as good as anything Snowpatrol have produced, & the album finishes on the haunting ‘Slumber’ with neat harmonics looping over rich acoustic guitar that fades tastefully out ending Gilmore, Simms & company’s journey.
Perhaps it was bad luck that Rumour Den missed out the first time
around – hopefully this time around they’ll become more than ‘a rumour’.
Thoroughly recommended.
Robert Craven.
Al and Steve are also active members of the NIUMF, Northern Ireland Unsigned Musical Family which is of course closely allied to MT.
The album is available via Bandcamp, visit Rumour Den’s MT channel for more details and some great songs – http://musicianstogether.com/user/RumourDen
Category: CD Reviews
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