Jadis - Somersault

To date, one person has read my review of Jadis - No Fear of Looking Down, so you can hardly accuse me of chasing numbers in my follow-up review of Somersault, their album from 2010. But so impressed I was by No Fear, I've been looking further into their catalogue.

Opening track Live This Lie reminds me of 'IT Bites' - remember them? Funnily enough they are still going and I will be doing a review soon. There's a kind of 80s pop sensibility to Jadis which I find very engaging. The vocals are rhythmically and melodically interesting, the musical arrangement interesting, the harmony is full of interesting tweaks and turns. There's clearly a very creative musical intelligence. This song is a very long way away from a simple verse/chorus structure. And what a great ending!

Second track Batstein (Batstein?) follows on stylistically. There's a kind of cheerful Englishness about Jadis which reminds me of Camel. And Steve Hackett in his most Narnia-esque mood. Great synth work.

Speechless - the third track. Again, sounds like Camel on one of their absolutely top days. I'm running out of good things to say about this album, because it's terrific.

I haven't said much about the lyrics. They seem to avoid the random long word syndrome which some prog lyrics are prone to. Nothing jars. I can't work out what they're about in just one or two listens, but they seem to hang together. Losing My Fear, the fourth track, particularly resonates with me. Oh, and there doesn't seem to be any fantasy/viking/greek mythology vibe which frankly has been done to death.

Track 4 has some lovely acoustic guitar, by the way.

The songs average around 6 to 8 minutes in length, and the album as a whole is 48 minutes long. For me, this is about as close to what I look for in a prog album as you can get.

Reasons to listen:

  • You like Camel and Steve Hackett
  • You can do without all the heavy stuff
Reasons not to listen:
  • You are a cloth-eared nincompoop

But guys, sort your website out! It's absolutely terrible! You're still referring to your new album coming out in 2016!

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