This is the Room's first album of new material since they broke up in 1985 and went off to be in Benny Profane, Dust and Dead Cowboys et al. The Room are as ever Dave Jackson with Darren Brown, Becky Stringer and Clive Thomas with Ethan Kyme and Tom McCabe it was Co-produced by Dave Jackson and Steve Powell.
The album opens slowly, glacially with The Drift full of somber feelings as Dave Jackson's rich vocals carefully intone what the drift is all about as the guitar gently fizz against the slow cymbals, this is in the same territory as Phil Parfitt's recent work.
Red Admiral is an organ led song in tribute to this most revered of butterflies, that takes us on a trip through the flying insects that sometimes get treated as enemies, as this evolves, they find a blood-stained cricket bat hidden in a hedge, what is going on, listen and find out.
Sleepless sounds like they have re-worked a minor indie hit from the early 80's into a rather cool list song for the miasma of weirdness that is the current world and the reasons you might end up an insomniac worrying about it all as the sound gets a bit heavier as they get worried about anorexic vampires and other modern terrors.
Kingdom is looking back on life and realizing they have to be sanguine about the future, that trusting in others fate and the journey they think they will make to heaven may be a hallucination as hell might be waiting for them, or they could just be in the ground. This questions religious belief without sounding at all pious over the slow thoughtful guitar an organ.
Time Comes is all about reminiscing while waiting to be let loose once more at the end of the pandemic, while taking aim at the idiots allegedly running the show.
The Reeds takes us down to a lake to sit watching the Swans glide by, reflecting on what's gone, that which has slipped from your grasp, hoping somehow that this isn't all there is, how did it all go away, downbeat song of love and loss with careful instrumentation and not a note out of place.
Dust Motes need dealing with as this noir story narrated like the intro to some dark film seen late at night in the gloom.
Mirror World has a time quake as it's central theme, as Kurt Vonnegut's idea gets mutated, the timeline flips and shakes leaving you trying to figure things out once more, as the insistent organ line keeps working against the bassline as time becomes ever more ephemeral.
Crying Face is looking at how people use emoji's to show they care, when often it feels like an emotion free response to another death or tragedy to add a Crying Face to your comment.
Cursed Islands is about an island off of Napoli, while sounding like a less obtuse Nightingales, this drives along with the keyboards really taking you to that Cursed Place where you might park your money but will never feel comfortable.
The album closes with Bull In The Doorway a slow thought provoking song, with powerful imagery that's based on the paintings of Francis Bacon, keeping things fraught with emotion and pain of the last few years.
Find out more at https://theroomtheroominthewood.bandcamp.com/album/restless-fate https://www.9x9records.co.uk/product-page/the-room-restless-fate-cd https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063702032127
