Offer The Light
by Noctorum
REVIEWS and COMMENTS
2nd album from Australian/U.K. duo featuring Marty Wilson-Piper, guitarist from the Church. These are epic, fully fleshed-out, mid-tempo guitar rock songs with a warm and hypnotic sense of melody; combined with virtuoso guitar riffs & a penchant for classic neo-psych prog/rock structures. Reminiscent of the Church (of course), Pink Floyd, Luna, Mark Knopfler, Tom Verlaine. There is a subtle depth here that makes this album a real grower.
5 stars out of 5
Given the prolific nature of The Church in this decade, it comes as something of a surprise that one of its members would have time to release music as part of another band, but that's just what Marty Willson-Piper has done as the vocal, songwriting half of Noctorum. Along with multi-instrumentalist and producer Dare Mason, Willson-Piper has written a rather beautiful '70s rock album, along the lines of Pink Floyd, but not too far from the band for which he is most famous. Offer the Light is actually the second album from the duo, and it sounds a lot less like an indulgent side-project than first effort Sparks Lane, evidenced by its fairly consistent sound and style, not to mention its lack of French-language tangents. It starts mellow and gets mellower, lulling us with soft-rock radio hits like the lovely, guitar solo-adorned "Alain Delon" and the rather beautiful "The Guessing Game", culminating with the seven-minute by-a-dying-fire strumalong that is "The Muse". The burst of hard rock toward the end sounds a bit out of place given all the raised lighters and acoustic guitars that preceded it, and the gloomy, sinister "Already Dead" (which sounds oddly like Monster Magnet for some reason) is particularly striking for its black sheep qualities; these aren't bad songs, they just don't make sense on this particular album. Still, for those fans who haven't been able to get enough of The Church through the band's hectic recent release schedule, this second helping of Noctorum will absolutely hit the spot. It's a well-produced, well-performed set from an obvious veteran of the industry. In other words, Offer the Light is everything it should be.
7 stars out of 10
"let me tell you a secret" is the best song i have heard in a long long time.
Starting in one world and finishing in another, visiting different worlds on the way, Offer The Light is an experience in both eclecticism and masterful recording. With a roll call of multi-talented musicians too many to mention here, Noctorum's multi-genre universe has no boundaries, only keys to turn and doors to open. Poignant lyrics over soft melodious guitars and acid devious characters stalk pounding beats; it's like listening to a compilation album of different bands with different ideas only the members are the same. The deeper you dig into Noctorum's world the more unpredictable it gets. Stay with it.