Caspian - Tertia

I've been meaning to review this record for a while but I haven't. Partly because I'm not sure what to say about this record, partly because I like it more every time I listen to it.

My first impression of the album went something along the lines of these are some really good songs that are arranged terribly, in as the track listing needs to be fixed because the record climaxes and then peters out. Not good. My other issue was the production... isn't as clean as it could be. There seems to have been an eq left on that shouldn't have. The drums are a muddy sounding and the overall record has very little in the way of high end dynamics.

All that to say... I do like the album. If my biggest issue with the album if the track order, which I can can go into itunes and rearrange the order to my liking, then the record can't be terrible.

The intro Mie is a little ambient piece into a short piano interlude that at first felt weird but the more I've listened to the album the more fitting it feels. That jumps right into La Cerva a straight forward rock piece. No post rock building, just straight into the loud parts. The record follows suit as much as you'd expect a post rock album to flow. Loud crescendos down into quiet ambient pieces moving to another crescendo.

The record flows in a manner that's very easy to listen to and not jarring until we reach the final two tracks. The Raven is a great song that builds and crescendos and moves as a good closing. It would be a great end to Tertia. But their are two songs that follow the Raven. Vienna, a very nice ambient piece in the vain of Hammock that moves into Sycamore, which does make for a nice album close. It's not that I dislike these two pieces of music, in fact I really like them. My problem is that The Raven was such a good song with high energy that these tracks just seems to bring the same emotion that the rest of the record has. Good songs, misplaced. It's even hard for me to say that they don't belong at the end because they're good songs and Scyamore works as a closer the way Vienna flows into it works nice. But the disconnect between The Raven and the heaviness of the rest of the album just makes these two tracks... standout.

I love Caspian and I really enjoy this record. If you've never listened to Caspian I might suggest listening to their album The Four Trees first. It's good post rock.