“Every prog band worth their salt really should do a double album, shouldn’t they?” asks Frost* frontman Jem Godfrey.
Not only has Godfrey crafted an almost ninety minute long double album, he’s also managed to link it to their previous release 2021’s Day and Age, while simultaneously capturing the sound of their earlier releases, particularly their ground-breaking debut record Milliontown. And to top it all off, Life in the Wires is also a full-blown, fully realised concept album. I’m not sure you can get much more prog than that in 2024.
“It’s actually a continuation from Day And Age,” explains Godfrey “the first track on the new album starts with the end of the last track from that album Repeat To Fade, where the static comes up and a voice says ‘Can you hear me?’. I remember putting that in when we did Day And Age as a possible little hook for the future; a character somewhere out there in Day And Age land trying to be heard.”
The story of the album revolves around the main character Naio, an aimless kid heading for a meaningless future in an A.I. run world. He hears an old DJ talking on the ancient AM radio his mother once gave him and decides to trace the source of the signal and find ‘Livewire’ to see if there’s a better future out there. However, the All Seeing Eye is less than impressed at this bid for independent thought and fights back. Soon Naio finds himself pursued across the country by an outraged mob as he tries to locate the home of Livewire and his freedom. Like many concept albums you don’t have to fully embrace the story behind the music to enjoy this album. Even if Naio’s journey goes right over your head, this is still a diverse, innovative and immensely enjoyable collection of songs over almost ninety minutes, two CDs or the traditional four sides of vinyl.
The three singles that the band released prior to the full album’s release served to whet the appetite in the best possible way. It’s so hard to pick songs out of context and away from the sequencing and sense of place a good album provides. It’s even more challenging when that record is a double concept album. Life in the Wires (Part 1), Moral & Consequence and Idiot Box showcase the vibrancy and the musicianship on show, while leaving some of the more melancholy and emotional pieces to be revealed in their natural habit on the record itself. That approach reminds me a lot of ELO, a band who I’ve loved since a very young age having been introduced to them by my Father. Like Jeff Lynne, Jem Godfrey creates records that have clever melodic songwriting, superb production and an intelligent approach to popular music.
Listening to this album for the first time made me think a lot about ELO. On most occasions it takes three solid listens to an album to understand it, to really get a sense of what it’s about and to decide whether I like it or not. The major deviation to that in my lifetime has been ELO. Discovery, Time, Secret Messages and Balance of Power all worked on first listen. The same is true retrospectively of New World Record and Out of the Blue, so I was fascinated to hear that the Electric Light Orchestra were a major touchpoint for the creation of this record. Godfrey has mentioned wanting to do his Out of the Blue, although, like me, his favourite ELO record is concept album Time. Life in the Wires worked for me from the very first listen, a feeling I haven’t had since childhood days and ELO album releases. Like those records from my youth it felt like this collection of songs had always existed, they just hadn’t been released into the wild yet. I’m not downplaying the craft, time and effort that went into the creation of this superb record, on the contrary I’m applauding how effortless and timeless these fourteen songs immediately sound. Jem has mentioned that once he treated it as writing four sides of a record, then the songs came easily to him, which bears out where I felt this way.
With Godfrey having written twelve of the songs, two more came from previous writing sessions with John Mitchell, and with the keyboard maestro firmly back on lead vocal duties, you might wonder if this could have been a solo album rather than a Frost* record. That would have done the rest of the band a disservice, as their playing and their take on the songs is a key part of what works so well. If you have seen Frost* live you will understand exactly what I mean.
I loved Day and Age, but there is so much unbridled joy on display from letting the whole band loose again on this record. “With Day and Age, we made it a very specific point: we’re not doing any solos, we’ll do clever arrangements. And we enjoyed that discipline, but this time I thought it might be good to row back on that position a bit.” Godfrey explains. As soon as I heard the wonderful single Moral & Consequence I could see that the shackles had been taken off. That song is ridiculously good, on a par with anything the band have ever done and already a personal favourite. With solo upon solo, it’s the antithesis of the preceding album in many ways and so much fun. With keyboard and guitar solos a plenty, it’s another reason the prog quota on this album is through the roof. Hearing an unbridled Craig Blundell on drums, sitting nice and high in the mix alongside a fully unleashed John Mitchell showing off his exemplary guitar playing and tone, held together by Nathan King’s deft bass playing makes this track a prime example of what this double album has to offer.
But it isn’t all about the bombast here, far from it, there are some truly beautiful, pared back moments too. Absent Friends is a voice, keys and strings lead mesmerizingly melancholy classic, emotionally on a par with the title track from ABBA’s Visitors or 20th Century Man from Time. Along with ELO, there are moments on this album that evoke Tony Banks’s finest moments with Genesis, memorable passages from Big Big Train, ELO’s sound transitions on Time and even shades of mid era Radiohead. The spoken word radio presenter moments reminded me of Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age, and on Idiot Box and Propergander the heavier, crunchy guitars make you think of that album a little too. Despite these comparisons, more than anything this album is 100% Frost* from start to finish. Where some bands do light and shade based on heaviness or lack of it, here Frost* use pace to create differentiation. The bigger songs have their trademark sense of relentless forward propulsion, and a slight air of menace, driven along by Blundell and King’s strident rhythm section. On the smaller, quieter moments, we sit in the song more, and live in the moment. Both sides of the band are exquisite and help to tell the story effectively and create a rich tapestry of music to listen to. That combination is what Frost* do really well.
Day and Age was my favourite album of 2021 and quickly became one of my favourite albums of all time. That’s happening again here. There are times when this record feels so blissful and life affirming that it reminds me of being a kid and staring into the sun on a hot summer’s day and thinking how lucky I am to be alive. This is pop with an edge, Prog with a sense of infectious melody. I’ve played this album numerous times already, to the point that I’m singing along with every earworm moment. I haven’t come close to being over familiar with the album, and each listen still reveals something new. It doesn’t suffer from the side four malaise, that even the most prestigious of double albums are sometimes burdened with.
Should every prog band make a double album? I’m not sure, but I’d be more than happy if Frost* made a few more. This is like a double album version of Milliontown and Day and Age combined, with bits of what went in-between scattered around it. That speaks volumes about how good it is. To my ears this record is a masterpiece, the high point in the band’s already lauded catalogue and an instant classic. Do yourself a favour and make sure you listen to it.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1
01. Skywaving (1:57)
02. Life in the Wires, (Part 1) (5:30)
03. This House of Winter (6:10)
04. The Solid State Orchestra (6:35)
Side 2
01. Evaporator (8:09)
01. Strange World (5:09)
01. Idiot Box (4:59)
01. Absent Friends (3:58)
Side 3
01. School (Introducing the All Seeing Eye) (3:12)
01. Propergander (5:34)
01. Sign of Life (5:44)
01. Moral & Consequence (8:13)
Side 4
01. Life In The Wires, (Part 2) (15:50)
01. Starting Fires (4:40)
Total Time – 85:48
MUSICIANS
Jem Godfrey – Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals
Nathan King – Bass, Vocals
John Mitchell – Guitars, Vocals
Craig Blundell – Drums
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: InsideOut Music
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 18th October 2024
LINKS
Frost* – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram