When hearing the opening track ‘Deep Time’, it took me for a brief moment that it was Tim Bowness at first. But then, it all started to change once the rain-dropping synthesisers, thumping bass, new wave territories, and brutal riffs coming out of the sky, ready to launch in this ‘80s vibration that is soon going to be a drive across the country.
For a band like MesaVerde, a band from Oslo that carries the torch between the Adrian Belew years of King Crimson, Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips, XTC, and the Arcade’s you would go during its heyday, playing Pac-Man, Galaga, Dragon’s Lair, and Robotron as the music blares out of the speakers of the band’s latest album on the Apollon label, All is Well.
Following up to their 2022 debut KY, MesaVerde have pulled in a lot of ammunition by bringing not just prog, alternative and indie rock, but synthpop to its knees. It has a strong sense of beauty that not only sounds amazing, but the way how the band brings in the melodies, textures, alternate film scores, and a vision in which the band have a complete understanding on how they want the second album to go into a different direction.
‘Moments’ at first sounds like a song that was left off during the recording sessions of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots continuing where ‘One More Robot / Symphony 3000-21’ had left-off. But there’s also the 10cc arrangements which comes to mind during its golden years of Gouldman, Stewart, Crème, and Godley’s heyday of the band’s first four albums.
MesaVerde know their resources very well. The acoustic sunrise over ‘Eva’ gives us a great sigh of relief with synth birds flying across the heavenly skies while heading into the dance floor for ‘Pyramid Fucksnake’ by laying down those post-punk attitudes with an upbeat tempo.
The jazzier and alternative powder-keg approach on ‘Tracing’ details the vocals going through a melodic bass line, throwing out a detail on the last moments of being alive on this planet has come quicker than they expected before going into a Yes-like driven attitude for a brief news flash. Those keyboards come into view, catches up with the rhythm section in hot pursuit, knowing that they have to cross the finish line in a nano second!
‘Pickings for the Beast’ does sound like a combination between Talk Talk, Simple Minds and the Misplaced Childhood-era of Marillion, writing a song together during John Hughes’ Brat Pack years, continuing where the characters of Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, or Emilio Estevez’s performance in The Breakfast Club had left-off in the future at the same school they went to for a regular Saturday morning in Detention.
With an incredible artwork that’s an homage to the Wes Anderson classic The Royal Tenenbaums, All is Well has proven to show that MesaVerde have just got the ball rolling when it comes to fascinating ideas, and more adventures that lie ahead in the years to come.
