The Future Kings Of England
Album: Who Is This Who Is Coming
Label: Backwater
Tracks: 9
Website: www.thefuturekingsofengland.com

Who Is This... is the fourth studio album from The Future Kings of England and is centred around the classic short story 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad' by M.R. James. While concept albums are certainly nothing new, this album portrays the evil and eeriness that is so evident in the story particularly well and proves to be a breath of fresh air in today's climate of single and individual song downloads. Musical content aside, Who Is This... celebrates the survival of the concept album and should be viewed as one work of art as opposed to nine individual pieces.

The general sound of the album is a less than subtle throwback to some of the great progressive rock bands of the early 1970s; Pink Floyd, Genesis, Camel etc. This is not only due to the style and structure of the songs but also the production as the sounds of the instruments are very much reminiscent of those bands 40 years ago. What should be praised is the albums creators' ability to do this without it sounding outdated.

While the album holds little crossover appeal for fans other than prog rock, The Future Kings Of England display a strong sense of harmony, musical creativity and seriously adept musicianship; factors which are crucial in music regardless of genre. For example, The Globe Inn features some winding and interesting dual guitar parts and Watcher Part I showcases some fantastic vocal harmonies and some unexpected chord sequences that really help bring the theme of the album to life. The album offers a wide range of sounds and instruments, including the flute (whilst managing to avoid the obvious comparison to Jethro Tull) and thus proving to be an interesting listen. Being a concept album based around a story, there are a lot of sound effects - one could even say there are too many. There are times where the sounds of footsteps and things of the like appear to be prioritised over actual music making the album, for some people, possibly a little difficult to listen to all the way through. However given that the group hardly pride themselves on their crossover appeal, this should be of little concern to their target audience.

Overall, a good album; nothing particularly new or groundbreaking but some nicely written and interesting songs and, to see concept albums such as this still being made, is certainly encouraging.

Richard Blenkinsop