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Sep 15, 2014 Web Exclusive By Mack Hayden

On first glance, Syd Arthur is a band aware of its own potential. Sound Mirror harkens back to ‘70s progressive rock as much as it glances toward modern folk revivalism. Syd Arthur is opening up for Yes on the prog legends’ latest tour and it makes all the sense in the world. Their second album is natural and mathematic all at once and that’s no small feat.

If you want to be made a believer, the opening piano stabs on “Hometown Blues” should be all it takes to convert with a sound mind. There are more incidents of arpeggiated and wild keyboard work where that came from too. Songs such as “Garden of Time” and “All and Everything” prove the same goes for guitars as well. Quirky isn’t the right word for Sound Mirror but the instrumentation and time signatures never stop smirking with their pensive, delightful oddness.

We should be used to new takes on old tricks by now but who would’ve thought Ian-or Jon-Anderson-approved music would still be a thing in 2014? Syd Arthur is doing their own thing and getting better at it the second time around. The first time you listen to Sound Mirror it feels like a breath of fresh air, but each successive inhale after gets a little more stuffy and stale. The last half of the record ventures a bit too much into artistic pretension, but the first half’s innovative hospitality keeps this from being a bad record at all. (www.sydarthur.co.uk)

Author rating: 6.5/10