Forest Mountain Forest is the latest album by Simon Bromide and the follow up to Following The Moon, this time he is backed by The Bromides who are Ed Cosmo Wright, Sam Kelly and Ollie Parfitt, The album is produced by Brian O'Shaughnessy at Bark Studios. Guests on the album are Andy Hank Dog, Piney Gir, Vivienne Soan, Dave Hale, Alvine Spetz, Katy Carr, Anna Masic, Reny Barrancos, Dmitri Ntontis and Terry Edwards.
The album opens with Leonard's Chair that musically sounds like Dylan just after he went electric, Simon claims this is a new song he stole just for you, it has the air of familiarity, rich vocals add some great knowing asides and thoughts on how most songwriters are perpetually stealing ideas form here there and everywhere, trying to sound something approaching originality.
Forest Mountain Forest has driving keyboards taking us deep into the forest, trying to be cool while trying to find the way to go to the next level, oh yeah go climb that mountain, it seems so easy, the guitars build like you know you should have splashed for those crampons, all your mates are looking up from the bottom calling to you from the trees below, are they damning you or encouraging you.
Sing To Forget opens with some dark deep sax and seagull samples, this slow strum of regret and sadness that some things are best forgotten, you can never get your self-respect back, the chilled backing vocals and sense of restraint that you might have to go back to the start again.
The main singe was Jean Luc Godard Directs showing how weird your life has gone, the keyboards drive this along with an urgency that suggests that he really will find the other side of me before long.
Clouds is floaty and a little bit dreamy like they are just reflecting and hoping to make it past dusk without getting too maudlin. Not Over yet no it's only halfway done and they aren't sure where it's going but the music is much more certain than the lyrics make out, indecision sounding like a true pop quest.
Carlito's Way is snatched reflections from the film, set to a knowing backing, that feels a bit The Divine Comedy, with the ever-insistent repeating piano motif, leading us toward that messy conclusion.
Song For Elon Musk has a Belle & Sebastian feel for this song of hope that he will jump on one of his spaceships and leave the rest of us for good, he can look down on us, while we can be relieved he's gone along with his trillions.
Eventide is a perfect instrumental bed to introduce this year's Eventide events, over guitars sounding very old school folk. The album closes with We're All Here that fades into this Primal Scream style party anthem for having a good time, hanging out in the garden and just bringing a sense of well-being leaving the past behind, being happy Butterfly collecting has gone out of style, while remembering the jam they made, that needs celebrating with some trumpet stabs and the wildest guitar freak out on the album.
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