ANATHEMA — We're Here Because We're Here (review)

ANATHEMA — We're Here Because We're Here album cover Album · 2010 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Stephen
"We're Here Because We're Here", the title that was inspired by the Allied song of the World War 1, is the eight album of Anathema and my first experience with the band. Probably not a good start since they have had a major shift in their musical style but judging from many positive reviews, I decided to give this a shot. Produced by Porcupine Tree's Wilson, I'm expecting his influences within their music, and at a glance, this album is a mix of progressive rock, contemporary alternative rock, and atmospheric/post rock style. If I need to pick four popular bands to describe this mix, I'll pick Coldplay, Muse, Pink Floyd, and Porcupine Tree itself.

Couple of good starters makes a good impression. "Thin Air" with a far-sounding vocal backed by a huge background keyboard, gives more room for the rhythm section and "Summer Night Horizon" was driven by piano with a gloomy nuance but topped with a melodic chorus. "Dreaming Light" is a sentimental piano ballad with a touching composition and a fantastic guitar solos, I love this song. "Angels Walk Among Us" featured Ville Valo from H.I.M, a slowtempo approach with sustained guitar sound on the background and the passionate vocal flowing on the stream of chilling song, another strong tune. "A Simple Mistake" burst out with a dreamy keyboard and floating voice, best to be played with lights out and couple of candles burning.

"Everything" is another piano-driven midtempo song, a pretty straight forward composition and also a good one. "Presence" started with a 1.4 minutes speech before the music starts pouring in, a unique style but I think will be better if the spoken part was shorter. "Get Off Get Out" is my least pick of the album, I found this song is too noisy and like on a narrow passage, the song just circling around pointless and bored me quickly.

In my opinion, this album depends heavily on the mood and not an everyday music. Majority of the songs are in depressive stance, too many pianos, too many downtempo. If only they put some more uptempo songs, I will like this better, but maybe that's not the point and intention of the album. But still, this is good.
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