Latitudes - 'Part Island' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Underlie

2. Moorland Is The Sea

3. Dovestone

4. Fallowness

5. The Great Past

6. Past Islands

I’ve always said that the music I like the most always has to be interesting to me. For some people they just love a good chorus, or they love a particular type of band, but for me it is the variety – the interesting moments half-way through a song that change it up or introduce a whole new style or sound into the music you are enjoying. And 'Underlie', the first track from 'Part Island', really serves that up for me.

It starts with a very calm, very serene opening – which lasts for about half of the song. By which point I had started to think that although it sounded lovely, I was concerned that the entire album would be a one-note affair, which was disappointing me somewhat. But then the second half of the song erupts into a beautiful cacophony of swirling musicianship, and all of a sudden I was excited for what followed.

And that feeling followed throughout the rest of my listen. This is an album of intense emotion and brilliant musicianship. Huge sections of it sound so simple and yet so complex at the same time. My first listen through it was on a day where I’d had a particular tough time, and it was absolutely the therapy I needed at the time. It takes you on a journey, transports you away from your everyday mundanity and into a genre-smashing musical haze, where everything just falls away from you and you can relax into it.

It’s a tough one to recommend if you are someone who is always on the lookout for standout tracks – the second track “Moorland Is The Sea” is probably my favourite of the bunch, but more than anything else I have listened to in a long time, the absolute beauty of this album is the whole – this is not an album to pick individual tracks from, it’s not an album to play on shuffle, it is an album to sit down and absorb from beginning to end.

I will say that it’s not a perfect album – and it’s very marmite I am sure – some will love it, and some will hate it. Speaking as someone who loved it, I did feel that a couple of tracks marginally overstayed their welcome, and while each track is a rollercoaster of different genres and feels, there aren’t any massively standout moments – no absolute bangers as the kids say – but it’s definitely one to put on for three quarters of an hour and completely chill out to.

It’s a tough one to describe, this Album – I’m sure there is probably a sub-genre that fits it, but for me it really belongs to itself. These Metal soundscapes feel giant and epic, and while I had no idea this was an album I wanted, it turns out that this is most definitely an album that I needed.

When the shortest track is 5:51, and the longest is 10:21, that should give you an idea of what to expect with this epic monster of a record. This is the antidote to real life that you may well have been seeking – it’s the escape that everyone needs.