Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound are on a roll with their new album A Cornucopia: Minerva, an apt title for a collection songs that are rooted in the diversity of gnarly melodic music that has seen the ligth the day from the Sixties until the present day.
Named after the Roman goddess of both art and warfare, they cover a lot of ground. Main songwriter John Armstrong lifted elements from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (Mind Palace), the Dystopian imagery a la Fischer-Z's Red Skies Over Paradise, The Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane (SS-100-X), English folk (The Harvest) he and his band stitched a mult-coloured tapestry of sounds that fights tooth-and-nail against pigeonholing.
The idea of an album as a whole is alive and well, even in the age of short attention spans that comes with the ability to stream pretty much anything. They are fully aware that they are catering to a niche, but they have an audience that will gladly fork over the money to own a physical product. And lucky for them they are rewarded with two more full brand new albums if they do so.
The Speed Of Sound:
John Armstrong: guitars, vocals
Ann-Marie Crowley: vocals, guitars
Kevin Roache: bass guitar
John Broadhurst: drums
Henry Armstrong: keyboards
Additional musicians:
Bob Dinn: trumpet and flugelhorn
Chris Guest: harmonium, vibraphone, organ and assorted shakers, tambourine.
Alex Armstrong: typewriter on Yet Another Tuesday
“Voices” on “Mind Palace”: Janet Stacey Dando, Henry Armstrong, Nick Frater, Jason Edge (courtesy of The Electric Stars), John Broadhurst, Mark Britton (courtesy of Amoeba Teen), Janet Armstrong, Louise Turner, Peter Watts & Ruth Rogers (courtesy of Spygenius) and Kevin Roache, plus Ivy Frater (heartbeat)
A Cornucopia: Minerva is released via Big Stir Records (coloured vinyl, CD, digital). The limited vinyl version is a 3LP, with two full bonus albums: Victory and Bounty. These will get a digital release in late 2024. The album is available for pre-order here.
Tracks:- West Wind
- SS-100-X
- Eight Fourteen Monday
- The Party Sniper (People Down There)
- Half Life
- Mind Palace
- The Great Acceleration
- The Harvest
- Bodysnatchers
- Trickledown
- Clickbait
- Yet Another Tuesday
- So Faux
- Question Time
HCTF review of Museum Of Tomorrow.
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