AN ALBUM FROM LIVERPOOL OUTFIT THAT LOVERS OF CLASSIC PROGRESSIVE ROCK WILL GET HUGE ENJOYMENT FROM.
The Swan Chorus are a three-piece progressive rock band hailing from Liverpool, and they came to my attention via The Prog Rogue, whose recommendations are always worth following up. Achilles and the Difference Engine is their second release.
Lead & Backing vocals are provided by John Wilkinson, who is the vocalist on Genesis Tribute act, Mama, and Colin McKay. Instruments are all played by McKay and David Knowles, and these two wrote the songs on the album. Additional drums are played by Peter Dover and bass by David Jones.
The story behind this band is told on their Bandcamp page at https://theswanchorus.bandcamp.com/album/achilles-and-the-difference-engine In 1979, Colin & David began writing songs together and formed a band called “Achilles”, and some of those songs are on this new album dedicated nicely to all involved with that music in the period.
This is a classic progressive rock album, and if, like me, you have more than a soft spot for Collins-era Genesis and think that Big Big Train are their natural successors in that English rock space, then this album is for you. It is a delight from start to finish. As I make clear, those influences are strong, but they are not in any way, shape, or form, derivative or all pervading. The ten tracks, including one epic, stand up on their own merits, so let’s discuss them.
We start with the wonderfully named The Waffle House Index. From the off, you get that sense of whimsical English progressive music, something I fell in love with more than forty-five years ago now and have never once relinquished, even though the target of this lyrically is accurately excoriating of the Republican political class in America with their lies, damned lies, and statistics under the Orange Messiah. The track features very nice keyboard layers, intricate guitars, and especially some very detailed melodic basslines. A strong start which I have embedded below.
After this, the brass instrumentation which introduces After Dark is a surprise, but a delightfully funky and welcome one. I suppose some will look to compare this in spirit and nomenclature to Keep It Dark, and there is certainly a repeat of that track’s sunny disposition (it wasn’t my favourite Genesis piece, but neither did it lead me to conclude that Phil Collins ruined civilisation at large). The vocals are very strongly Collins influenced, and sound great. Lyrically, it is an interesting study of night life and its impact upon the grand insomniac. Huge fun including a great guitar jam.
Being There is precisely the type of lyrically intelligent track this website exists to write about and publicise, a very knowing and loving, but always reality checked homage to the late, great Peter Sellers who was always so much more than that clueless French detective. As throughout the album, the keys are very strong on this, creating a soundscape from which all else follows, and it is here perhaps that the Genesis influence is so strongly felt to me, not a copy, but a way of building a whole song around those keyboards. There is a massive Longden feel to the vocals on this, alongside a nice female choral voice, telling a story dripping with personal admiration featuring a nice guitar solo as we move towards the close.
Cold Comfort follows and the opening sequence has a cracking rhythm section pushing matters along in a track which lyrically strikes me as a somewhat bitter refection on Thatcherite Britain. Very trad prog keyboard heavy, this is the type of track which became (very annoyingly to me) classified in stone by certain progressive sites as “neo-prog”, but in reality, is a satisfying piece of whimsy to these ears.
Contender from the off is a more serious affair, and pretty dark talking as it does, I believe, about an infamous case where a boy’s body is found in a storm drain, but I might well contact the band about this to get the detailed story which is stark in its depiction of the fate waiting certain prisoners in maximum security jails when being a “nonce” is a widespread belief amongst the not altogether pleasant wider population. Musically, the song is thoughtful, with some more female voices adding to the atmosphere in parts and reminding me of some of the work 10CC were doing back in the late 1970’s, so a sort of pop leaning art rock track dealing with serious issues at its heart.
My Little Vampire weighs in at eight and a half minutes. I particularly like the reference to the wonderful painter (“let’s add some happy little trees, hmm?”), Bob Ross. The vocals are plaintive, but some beautiful guitar work, acoustic & electric, is at the centre of a very nice pastoral rock song, the sound and shape, especially taking the flute into consideration, takes one back to the halcyon days of (public school) English progressive rock. It is embedded below.
No Idea follows this. I think this must be one of the original songs, a sort of homage to adolescent fumbling efforts to attract the opposite sex. Ah, I remember it well, and not, if I am honest, with any great fondness, but the track is playful in a bombastic fashion and fun with great keys, including a final segment swirl, and a nice guitar burst.
English Electric. I rather like this track with its punky attitude to the indifference of the great British public to the music being produced as if punk rock had never happened, so not altogether short of irony. There is some great bass work again in this, with one of the most tuneful guitar solos you will hear all year, alongside what I consider a loving nod to past Spinal Tap drummers’ moments and a lot of fun with the world circling around and them not really caring a damn.
Welcome Home is another very interesting lyrical performance commenting on the great English performances abroad which indigenous peoples of tourist destinations suffer annually and you really cannot help head tapping along to the persistent beat produced by the massive keys and the bass/drum rhythmic thump.
We close with the epic track, The Great Adventure. The opening passage is quite gorgeous with some lovely guitar work and more noticeable bass melodies underneath. All that is good about this album is included in this track, so just about the perfect epic to close, and I have embedded it below. The vocals are again plaintive looking back with only a couple of regrets at life decisions made. Put your feet up for ten minutes and wallow in the sound of a band with tuneful progressive rock at the core of their musical being.
I really enjoy this album. No, it is not going to break any major new ground stylistically or culturally, but such is not its intent, I feel. It is an album made by a trio who love their music and that love translates over to those prepared to spend time with them. They tell very good tales intelligently. As such, it brings a smile to this reviewer, and I hope to hear much more from them in the future.
