Contrary to its title, listening to “North”, Everon’s 7th album since 1993, doesn’t conjure up images of frost-bitten grimness. The inspiration was in fact the bleakness of the north Holland shores. What I heard was an inoffensive compendium of emotional Progressive music.
The opening track “Hands” has an air of Jethro Tull in its acoustics and develops into a bog standard Prog track. It is fluid however and gets better thanks to the structure and the repetition towards the end, which creates an air of comfort. “Brief Encounter” starts off with an emotional guitar solo before the introduction of a beseeching vocalist to the accompaniment of the piano and a Spanish-sounding guitar. It’s not especially original but there’s a pleasing structure to the track which rises in tempo and borders on the epic before settling back down again. “From Where I Stand” is an emotional dirge and frankly pretentious. “Test of Time” was another rather tedious song dominated by the singer but saved by a typically grandiose Prog ending. The title track “North” has power .. at last. “Just speechlessly drive South while emotionally it feels we’re heading North”, we’re told. This track is about fear and lost memories and conveys it in the “soul food”, as Everon put it. The vocalist takes on a new energy and captures the emotion of the track, enhanced by delicate guitar and piano work. The beginning of “South of London” is strongly reminiscent of Porcupine Tree with its distorted telephonic sound. The vocalist seems again to have taken on a new lease of life and has authority. The chorus has a pop production about it but it’s not a pop track. From the guitars there’s a funky feel, which circulate in patterns very much Everon’s fellow Germans Sieges Even. “Wasn’t It Good” starts slowly and emotionally – I never liked the dreary Peter Skellern and this was out of his book – but at least it’s punctuated by a sophisticated mix. The track then bursts into life, developing with a guitar solo and the sad strains of the violin. There’s a contrast between the quiet softer section, in which the singer sounds like a soloist in a West End musical, and the more emotionally charged chorus. After a guitar instrumental there’s an emotional duet between a male and female vocalist. At one point “Woodworks” slows down to clear the way for some delicate and sublime guitar playing. The final track “Running” is almost a tribute to Sieges Even with its hurried, almost breathless vocal style and pleasantly insistent background beat. It started promisingly but doesn’t really lead anywhere, in keeping with the album as a whole.
“North” was a bit too slow and disjointed for my liking, bordering at the same time on the bland and pretentious. On the other hand when it got going it had some great technical moments and featured the hallmarks of solid Progressive music. The vocalist’s voice worked well with the occasionally twirling rhythms, and was engaging without being whiny, superior or condescending. The strange thing with this album was that it started to capture me but any magic disappeared and fell away the more I listened to it. “North” is pleasant enough and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it but contrary to the claim I couldn’t find its soul.
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