Sunday, February 19, 2023

XII Alfonso - Charles Darwin (2012)

The sixth album from this band from France.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, theremin, glockenspiel, xylophone, bass, guitars, mandolin, bouzoki, ukulele, ocarina, synths, programming and vocals.

The band got help from fifty other guests who supplied woodwinds, strings, accordion, keyboards, programming, bass, guitars, narration and vocals.

Gosh.... This album clocks in at over one hundred and eighty minutes..... three hours. It is one of the most ambitious albims I have ever encountered. 

The band is not exactly a multi million albums selling band either. I would be surprised if they have ever sold five thousand copies of one of their titles. Actually, I would be surprised if they have in total sold as many as five thousand albums.

We get three hours of vocals dominated songs. There are some orchestral symphonic prog pieces also here. But the vast majority of these three hours is vocals about the life of Charles Darwin. 

I feel this is nothing more than a book with some music added. 

The vocals and lyrics is OK but on the simplified end of the spectrum. The band had courage and a lot of insanity to manage to put out this album. An album with a triple booklet. 

The instrumental pieces are rather good. The songs are half-decent.

I am not won over but this is still a decent album.

The band deserve a lot of credit for their bravery, though.

2 points



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