To these ears, THE definitive Mostly Autumn live record

A browse of the hundreds of album reviews I have posted on this wonderful little website (self-praise being a virtue) will show the reader that there are very few reviews of live albums. There is a reason for this – I prefer to listen to, and review, new music. It is rare that bands introduce new music in the live arena, and it can be commercial suicide to do so. Further, a recording of a gig does not often mirror the sheer joy and emotion the live experience brings.

I have, though, made an exception for Back In These Arms, the new live double CD issued by one of my favourite acts, Mostly Autumn, a band who continue to provide discerning music fans with thoughtful, emotional, powerful, and above all intelligent rock music. The CD was purchased for me as a birthday present in late December.

I first saw the band live at Patti Pavillion in Swansea, a tiny roundhouse of a venue and, as Bryan Josh subsequently said to me in a conversation in Cardiff, utterly unsuited to the band. That was on a tour following the release of The Last Bright Light. We then saw them a couple of years later in Cardiff on The Passengers tour, when I had said discussion with the great man. We very rarely get to live shows these days, and it has been a wee while since the band came remotely close to us in West Wales, so this live release chronicling the band’s return to live music after the impact of Covid was both welcome and really my only realistic opportunity to enjoy the live MA “experience”. I was also extremely curious to see how one of the finest releases of recent years by any band dealing with said pandemic, Graveyard Star, would translate to the live arena. The album does not disappoint.

The setlist is a treat, well over two hours which includes bona fide MA classics such as The Last Climb, Nowhere to Hide, Spirit of Autumn Past, Passengers, Mother Nature and thence through to a strong showing for recent works. There are also a couple of rather pleasant surprises such as the exceptional Gaze, a track you will have needed to have purchased the bonus CD version of 2006’s Heart Full Of Sky to have heard before (take a listen below and enjoy) and In for the Bite, a track from the spinoff Josh & Co Ltd Transylvania album.

For all the classics and the surprises, it is, though, to these ears the later Autumn tracks which shine and are played with a vitality and urgency. I really enjoyed 2017’s Sight of Day, and in my review of the album described it as an album of light in direct contrast to the bleakness of Dressed in Voices (which I still regard as being one of the top five albums I have the pleasure to own). Opener Tomorrow Dies is a rollicking way to start a set, with Olivia Sparnenn-Josh beginning as she would continue throughout the gig, in exceptional vocal form – what a set of pipes she has. Changing Lives features the vocal talents of Chris Johnson and he, Bryan Josh, and Angela Gordon provide for a group of vocalists bringing words alive with feeling. The album provides the final encore in Forever and Beyond, and by this time they can do no wrong. A sensitive anthemic track, listen with sheer joy at Angela Gordon’s whistle introducing the lovely mid-section love song of Bryan & Olivia before the closing section lifts your spirit and fills you with joy.

The longest epic piece is the superb title track from White Rainbow at over 19 minutes, with a deeply brooding opening sequence before Bryan makes his vocal entrance. The rendition of this is cracking (with nods to other heights), not once losing the interest of the listener and what helps, by the way, is the crystal-clear sound which is a feature of the entire performance.

To me, though, it is the band’s wonderful paeon to the dreadful Covid period which takes centre stage for much of the gig, and live they do this fine album justice. Spirit of Mankind races along with Olivia belting out the tribute to our indefatigability and Jennings especially strong on keyboards. Its warmth is strongly replicated on this live performance, and how nice it was to have the band continue to surprise us with something so completely different after all these years. This Endless War drips with emotion and takes you right back to the time when you felt that it really would never end. Back in These Arms, a song of freedom, starts with a gorgeous key and guitar duet and as Bryan & Olivia start singing, the musical backdrop is fresh and vital, a piece of music for the 21st century. When the main riff kicks in, the urgency is felt keenly. The pipes are gorgeous. A video is embedded below – if you have never heard anything of Mostly Autumn, or gave up in the past, take a listen to this track below and rush out and buy the fantastic music you have been missing.

I only really have one very minor quibble with this album, and that is the surprising quietness of the audience in the mix. Mind you, you could also say that about many of the “classic” live albums such as Genesis Live et al, so this is nothing new in the world of prog, but they do seem subdued and I am pretty sure that was not the case in the flesh, so to speak.

Pettiness aside, Back In These Arms is I believe the definitive live record of Mostly Autumn, surpassing to these ears the exceptional That Night in Leamington, and I say this because this is the sound of a band who nod to the classics, but also continue to drive their art forward.

Available at all the usual outlets, this album comes highly recommended.