An album release from Phileas comes through Lush and full body not only with instrumentation but with characters as well as the songs tell stories with a certain level of detail that lets you almost paint pictures in your head and through it all you get different levels of intensity and songs that feel like they're alive and breathing in their own way.
The Present album feels almost like it could be a concept record of sorts because the songs have ways of interconnecting with each other, and they feel like they serve as chapters in the songwriter's life.
This is something I absolutely love about the record because it pulls you in and gives it character and persona and this is the kind of thing that you end up getting engaged with throughout the release.
These songs certainly come from real places, and this makes everything all the more genuine and authentic because not only can you relate to certain songs but some of them actually cause memories of your own to pop into your head at random and this is something that doesn't come along often so when it does it's incredibly refreshing.
As I said earlier, the instrumentation across the record is full-bodied and features everything from guitar, piano, and even string sections that all add to the atmosphere of this emotionally driven piece.
It is quite easy to get engulfed by this record and it soundscapes, textures, and songs but all in all it has such a lively approach because you have songs that are somber and bring a certain kind of darkness and realism to the stories being told, and then you have songs that are upswing rock songs that feel like classic rock songs that are catchy and colorful.
So that balance between edginess and color sticks throughout the course of the record and I can also say this; although there are several songs that stand on their own two feet as singles very well, I do genuinely feel like this is the kind of album that you want to listen to from beginning to end because that's the way it was meant to be soaked in.
I love finding new artists that release full length albums like this because those albums have meaning, and this is the kind of stuff that I grew up with anyway.
We used to get CDs, cassettes, vinyl records, and all of those things were usually full albums.
You heard a song on the radio, and it attracted you to buy the whole record but when you got the record, it was a full-length LP and that took over your whole month.
You would just listen to that record over and over for weeks and that is something that takes over your world and serves as a soundtrack to chapters in your own life.
This was beautifully woven and put together with a looseness but still a great attention to detail. The looseness is something that makes the record feel alive.
This was a great escape and when it's over you feel like you just read a book or watched a film and you have to snap yourself out of it to reacclimate to your reality again.
A massive element that I've missed in music for a very long time. Escape.
Not all music is meant for escape of course, but an album like this surely naturally does it because you get so sucked into the songs and where they come from that they do indeed paint that picture for you and that's what you're paying attention to for that particular chunk of time.
Pop some headphones on, set aside half an hour because that's how long this record is, and listen to this album.
It's worth your time without question.
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