Mei [Import]

Echolyn (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 1, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Dark Matter Distribution
• ASIN: B000CA6S0Y
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,140 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give this one a chance to grow on you, January 3, 2006

By 

woburnmusicfan (Woburn, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mei (Audio CD)

It often takes a few listens for an album to grow on me, but this one set a record. It KEPT growing on me with every listen for about a year, until it became a huge favorite. Echolyn is a prog-rock band out of Pennsylvania that over the last 15 years has gradually gone from having more chops than ideas to being the best hope for the future of prog. "Mei" is a single 50-minute album-length song, in the footsteps of "Thick As a Brick". And much as I love Tull's album, "Mei" is better. The album is full of alternating fast and slow sections, with most musical themes getting reprised somewhere along the way. The fast sections rock harder than anything Echolyn had previously recorded, though not as much as 2005's "The End Is Beautiful". William Barnes continues the great clean, crisp production he provided on 2000's "Cowboy Poems Free." Lyrically, the band's website bills "Mei" as "...a combination of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' and Dante Alighieri's 'Inferno'". On "Cowboy Poems", keyboardist Chris Buzby made the decision that he was going to minimize his use of synthesizers in favor of electic piano and organ, and that choice helps to give "Mei" a timeless feel. There is none of the neo-prog excess of earlier albums like "As the World", though Echolyn still loves to change time signatures. "Mei" and "Cowboy Poems Free" are the two best post-1980 progressive rock albums I've heard. By anyone. I own about a thousand albums, and "Mei" is hovering on the fringes of my all-time Top 10.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give this one the chance to grow on you, January 3, 2006

By 

woburnmusicfan (Woburn, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mei (Audio CD)

It often takes a few listens for an album to grow on me, but this one set a record. It KEPT growing on me with every listen for about a year, until it became a huge favorite. Echolyn is a prog-rock band out of Pennsylvania that over the last 15 years has gradually gone from having more chops than ideas to being the best hope for the future of prog. "Mei" is a single 50-minute album-length song, in the footsteps of "Thick As a Brick". And much as I love Tull's album, "Mei" is better. The album is full of alternating fast and slow sections, with most musical themes getting reprised somewhere along the way. The fast sections rock harder than anything Echolyn had previously recorded, though not as much as 2005's "The End Is Beautiful". William Barnes continues the great clean, crisp production he provided on 2000's "Cowboy Poems Free." Lyrically, the band's website bills "Mei" as "...a combination of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' and Dante Alighieri's 'Inferno'". On "Cowboy Poems", keyboardist Chris Buzby made the decision that he was going to minimize his use of synthesizers in favor of electic piano and organ, and that choice helps to give "Mei" a timeless feel. There is none of the neo-prog excess of earlier albums like "As the World", though Echolyn still loves to change time signatures. "Mei" and "Cowboy Poems Free" are the two best post-1980 progressive rock albums I've heard. By anyone. I own about a thousand albums, and "Mei" is hovering on the fringes of my all-time Top 10.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Echolyn - A 50 Minute Concept Piece, February 10, 2007

By 

Steven Sly (Kalamazoo, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mei (Audio CD)

Echolyn once again pulls a 360. After putting out an album of more straightforward songs with "Cowboy Poems Free" the band goes the opposite direction with "Mei". A 50 minute concept piece "Mei" is one long song with no breaks........about as prog as you can get. Normally I love this kind of thing, and for the first half of the album I think "Mei" is brilliant. Unfortunately the concept starts to wear a bit thin for me towards the end. Not that it is bad, but it definitely takes something to keep the listeners interest over the course of almost an hour. "Mei" is certainly ambitious and many regard it as the band's masterwork. The music is somewhat different from previous efforts especially in the keyboard department with very little synthesizer and and abundance of organ and piano. There is also a chamber orchestra that plays off and on throughout the disc. The orchestra is used to great effect at the beginning and end of the album. The story......to be honest I am not sure exactly what it is about. It appears to be about a person who is driving in his car, possibly running away from a relationship. As in "Cowboy Poems Free" there is a sense of the character moving through various scenes of rural America. The band is very adept at capturing this imagery in both vocals and music. I enjoy every album that Echolyn has done, but for some reason "Mei" is probably my least favorite. I can't really put my finger on why though, and I would still give it a strong recommendation for fans of the band. As mentioned earlier I know a lot of Echolyn fans who think this album is their crowning achievement, so opinions certainly will vary.