This is my favorite CD of all time. I can not do this album and the beauty that it is justice with any grouping of words, yet this review will probably be very long since I could talk about this album forever...
Elliott created the perfect album with False Cathedrals, I really believe it. Production is top notch. The art work is beautiful. And the music contained inside is the most moving collection of songs I have ever heard. Every song is covered in beauty, layered and played to perfection. The band took their "old" sound (a spacey mix of rock and punk; spacey enough to send you into that kind of trance beautiful music puts you in, but not to spacey to leave you floating in layers of guitars bored to death) and turned up the spaceyness (not a word). But not in a bad way.
Spacey in a way that just makes you close your eyes and feel like you're floating, feel like everything is ok and everything is beautiful. Chris has got one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, I swear he has the voice of an angel. His voice, suttle guitars and perfectly utilized piano and effects leave you in the air, but the drumming and second guitar are what keep you from floating away into bordom. The drum work on this album is some of the best I've ever heard, it really keeps the songs grounded and flowing, and is essential to the beauty of this album. While one guitar delicately plays riffs and notes that are beautiful and dreamy, the other keeps everything together and keeps things from getting lost.
The beginning of the album is more dreamy and beautiful than the second half, tracks 1-5 contain more piano and overall are slower and not as heavy as other songs. Track 6, Lipstick Stigmata, brings in more of a heavier and back to earth kind of feeling. There are a few soft tunes thrown in, but nothing as beautiful and layered as the begining tracks. The later songs are more bare in a way; the band sheds some of the piano and effects and harkens back to their old sound a little.
While 1-5 are some of the most beautiful and dreamy tracks the band has ever written, the last 4 tracks are I think the most interesting and creative songs the band has ever written. Superstitions In Travel is a half acoustic song that starts out with a very raw and bare sound, only to transform into a fully realized semi-rocker. Carving Oswego isn't very different, a standard Elliott song, but there is just something about it that stands out and makes it different. It's probably my favorite track on the album. Lie Close starts out with some great drumming, and is the heaviest and most rocking track on the album. The last minute of the song is totally amazing. And the final track Speed of Film sums up the entire album in a way, it's a perfect mix of the two sides of the album, a perfect blend of the dreamy and the rock.
False Cathedrals is probably the most beautiful piece of music I've heard so far in my life. No matter how I feel or what has happened, I can listen to this album and escape. False Cathedrals and Elliott are a piece of me, and have had an impact on my life. This album means something to me, and is a truly great acomplishment. It may not touch you like it has me, but regardless, False Cathedrals is beautiful and amazing album that you will more than likely enjoy.