Frost *– Life in the Wires (2024)

The first album (Milliontown) of this band around Jem Godfrey and John Mitchell was a real revelation after its release and not only for me. What a modern twist they managed to give to the somewhat dozed off prog scene with great songs and ditto playing because both gentlemen are very dexterous which resulted in breathtaking solos on keys and guitar. The following albums all turned out to be a lot less interesting for me and it seemed as if they wanted to play less and less solos and only put short(er) songs with less memorable melodies on the albums. However, they remain class musicians and the current rhythm section is of the same level nowadays and with Craig Blundell on drums and Nathan King on bass, the songs burst out of the speakers or headphones.

It seems as if Godfrey has been thinking of the debut album because Life in the Wires is a step back in that direction and has really become a very challenging album. It is not only very long (84 min) and therefore a double CD (or LP) but also filled with tracks that all flow into each other and thus form a conceptual whole. Now that's a statement. As Godfrey himself says, this album is his The Wall, The Lamb .... in other words, his intended Magnum Opus.

Has it become so?

I still find that difficult to answer and time will tell. I can say that I think it's a very exciting album, but I don't have the wow feeling that I had after Milliontown.

The story has a bit of an Orwell feel (1984) because here too we are dealing with a world ruled by technology, in this case AI, and an individual trying to discover what the former world had to offer. He hears a voice through an old radio signal and sets out to find this mysterious messenger. "Goodevening, this is Lifewire" These messages often form the transition between the songs.

The voices of Godfrey and Mitchell are not that far apart and are good without really excelling. Due to the tempo of many songs, listening to the album as a whole is quite a challenge because it is overwhelming at times, songs like Idiot Box leave little breathing space. Yet there are also plenty of resting points, just listen to Strange World for example, which has made it a very dynamic album.

Absent Friends, where do we know that title from, is one of those quiet songs with the piano and undulating keyboards as a foundation for Jem's voice which sounds at its most sensitive here and how beautiful that is. In School we meet the All Seeing Eye (Big Brother?) for the first time and this results in a very heavy song with heavy guitars and a pounding, driving rhythm against which the keyboards solo, that it is a real delight. Who can play like this? Not many can do that, I know. That atmosphere is continued in the following Propergander, which feels rather oppressive and is full of bombastic passages. Heavy stuff and yet the story is easy to follow because the sung pieces are easy to understand and do not drown in all the violence.

There are fourteen songs on the album and I won't go through them all, but I still have to talk about Life in the Wires part 2 because this fourteen minute epic is definitely of the calibre of Black Light Machine of Milliontown in terms of virtuosity and contains everything Frost has to offer. Starting Fires is the closing track and forms the conclusion of the story and thus the album. "Can you hear me?"

Okay, I have to give a final verdict and that's not easy because I'm in two minds. The first is, how cleverly this is played and conceived. The second is, why don't I remember melodies or hooks? Also after several listens I don't come to the conclusion that Godfrey would have liked to hear, namely this is the best thing I've ever heard from Frost but admittedly, it comes close.

The cover is effective but doesn't necessarily appeal to me, but that will be of no concern. The whole thing is a very complete product with a lot of challenge, so go listen!

Music 72

Cover 65