Customer Reviews

Mei

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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)

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)

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.

I have listened to this a few times now and last time I was indeed surprised it was already over - already over? 49 minutes passed already?

It starts gently with the orchestra softly coming in. The intro is full of anticipation but leading to a somewhat too ordinary piano ballad that may be just a little weak. The voice also is a little too loud in those opening minutes which only enhances the feeling that this is going to be a very very long ballad. But everything picks up about 4 minutes into Mei. From then on it is a pure beauty. There are changes but none too sudden and they do not in any way break the continuity of Mei. It really feels like one song despite all the changes. Some lovely vocal harmonies and nice somewhat understated isntrumentation (ie. no long solos). Polished, well produced progressive rock, with a more modern "fat" sound, a lot of organ, mellotron and some synth, some brief guitar solos and a good rhythm section. In the moments when the drums, bass, guitar and organ truly kick in, it verges on hard rock, but without becoming excessive.

There is a small chamber orchestra often in the background but mostly noticeable in the opening moments, rarely coming very much near the surface. The sound is more rock than classical music - and less symphonic than probably any other intermarriage of a rock group with a classical music ensemble.

Echolyn website has more on Mei and their other records including the lyrics.

The theme seems to be something to do with a lover, some kind of a diary during a journey seemingly involving an abandoned church, hence mei, which may allude to "miserere mei" and of course means "me" in Latin. Ties in with going over those memories. There is a kind of catharsis in the final few lines

My fear was a fever
That's been cooled and forgiven
And I wait for the morning
When I come back to you...

one of the gentler and more acoustic moments of the song - if one may call Mei a song.

"Mei" is one super long 49-minute song. As expected of any epic tune, there are many peaks and valleys, heavy and slow parts, with ever changing themes. It took me a long time to appreciate "Mei" because it' so dense, but when this sinks in you realize what you just experienced is a great tune that holds your interest and ends too soon. All trademark Echolyn qualities are in abundance - the staggering musicianship, superb multilayered vocal harmonies, seamless integration of rock/jazz/prog, and great production. Love the keyboards and orchestra arrangements courtesy of Chris Buzby, Ray Weston does a magnificent job of playing bass, which is not his usual instrument, Brett Kull's guitar work and engineering skills (he recorded/mixed/mastered "Mei") are marvelous, and Paul Ramsey balances everyone with his slick drumming.

For those who like shorter tunes or are new to Echolyn, you should probably check out "The End is Beautiful" or "As the World" first and then return to this amazing work.

The previous reviewer is right - this one just keeps growing on me. Mei kept popping up on the suggestions on the iTunes store as I bought neo Prog rock like Galahad, The Reasoning, and Frost*. Finally, I decided to go ahead and buy it, since I'm a usually a fan of epic/concept albums.

On the first listen, I was only moderately impressed, and somewhat reminded of Thick as a Brick, because of the frequent theme changes, many of which are revisited throughout the piece. Certain sections, however, seemed to be stuck in my mind, and I found myself coming back to Mei over and over in the days and weeks that followed. The more I listen, the more I am impressed with the construction of this music. From the strings and piano opening to the hard-rock ending, this is ecstasy from start to finish.

As I listen to this, I hear everything from prog-era Genesis to the strings of Kansas. Everybody says Echolyn reminds them of Gentle Giant, but I've never listened to GG, so I can't comment on that. There are some lyrical gems in this that I keep discovering as I listen more and more. One of my favorites:

"Sometimes you feel alone because sometimes you are"

As the other reviewer said, this is probably in my all-time top ten albums (certainly top twenty), and I've been a music junkie for nearly 30 years. My other prog likes include Dream Theater, Genesis, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, It Bites, Pure Reason Revolution, Rush and Yes. If you like any of those bands, give Mei a couple of listens.