All My CDs, pt 43 - The Burning Season

The Burning Season - Faith & The Muse

The Burning Season differs from all other Faith and the Muse albums because of its solidly contemporary musical style, with none of the band's otherwise pervasive folk and classical influences. A few folk instruments, mostly percussion, is all that remains of the ancient in this album.

There isn't much of hard rock in this either, except for The Relic Song, which seems more punk-influenced than anything else. Honestly, if not for Monica Richards's very distinctive vocals, I would hardly have recognized this album as Faith and the Muse. While their music has always played with multiple styles and techniques, The Burning Season leaps into far different territory and explores new ground.

Nevertheless, the soul of the music remains visible under the new clothes. As ever, each song walks with one foot in the spirit world, showing or at least hinting at an undercurrent of mystical experience behind the veil of reality. This shows in the lyrics and in the sublime, trancelike rhythms that interweave diverse sound elements from warlike drums to tinkling dulcimer.

From the moment I first heard it, one of my favorite songs has been Whispered In Your Ear, which begins with a striking rhythm played on dulcimer and expands to incorporate a plethora of sublime rhythms from uncountable instruments, both electronic and acoustic. The hopeful lyrics speak encouragement in time of doubt: “Another hour. Another mile. One more year.”

Other favorites include Visions and the title track, The Burning Season, which also prominently feature dulcimer and compelling, spiritual lyrics. The Burning Season seems to make use of some of the same techniques as movie soundtracks I enjoy, by blending together light percussive sounds just arrhythmic enough that they might pass as background noise, and has the bonus of some truly heart-quickening drums.

Two songs I didn’t like at first. Boudiccea turns me off immediately with lyrics that I find distastefully false: describing “womanhood” in terms of fluid curves, painted lips, and even ability to read minds. I cannot even pretend to accept such traits as inherently female, and the lines claiming so are very distracting. However, after all this time, I decided to give the song a critical listen in an attempt to see past this flaw. I found that once these unfortunate lines are past, the music builds to an eerie climax that almost inspires me to overlook them. It may have helped that I read up on the historical figure of the same name.

Gone to Ground is another one I don’t like, but for some reason a similar critical listen has not redeemed it to my ears. I find it grating, possibly because of its obvious blues influences which do not mesh well with the other elements I hear in it. It might just be me.

I have a curious relationship with this album. I tend to view it as the black sheep of the Faith and the Muse family, with a clear resemblance but with so much idiosyncracy that it doesn’t quite fit in. I just think of the other albums as more quintessentially “F&tM,” and this one as “the other.” I realize this is ironic, considering the genre-defying nature of the band in general. For that reason I believe I don’t think to play it as often as I would if it was the single album of another band entirely, and from now on, I think I may try to correct that.

Next: Evidence of Heaven