UK Progressive Rockers Frost* have released album number five, Life In The Wires. This is the band’s first double concept album and is, by a long shot, my album of the year.
Frost* – Life In The Wires (InsideOut)
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Robert Adams
I was fortunate enough to review their previous album, the magnificent Day And Age and also see Frost* live on the tour that followed. I proclaimed that Day And Age was the band’s finest album to date, and the live show was a glorious mixture of fun and top-drawer musicianship.
Life In The Wires takes Frost* to a different level altogether. It is the first concept album that Frost* has done, and not one second of the eighty-five minutes plus run time is wasted.
The tracking of Life In The Wires plays out like the best progressive rock live setlist you will hear. For every blast of bombast like Evaporator, Idiot Box and Propergander, there follows the soft stroke of warmth that is Strange World, Absent Friends and Sign Of Life. The aforementioned tracks provide the perfect balance of Ying and Yang which work beautifully.
The basic story is that our protagonist, living in an AI-run future world, stumbles across a live DJ broadcasting his show Livewire, and off he goes on a journey of self-discovery as well as trying to find the Livewire studio.
Apart from two tracks [Strange World and Starting Fires] which were co-writes with guitarist John Mitchell, Life In The Wires is very much keyboard player and vocalist Jem Godfrey’s baby. This man did not win an Ivor Novello songwriting award for nothing.
Granted, that award was for Shane Ward’s That’s My Goal, which was the biggest-selling single of 2005.
Godfrey certainly knows his way around music arrangements, lyrics, structure and production and his skill and touch are all over Life In The Wires. During my recent interview with Jem, we talked about how the album was recorded. Basically, he sent out demos to the other members of Frost*, John Mitchell on guitar, Nathan King on bass and Craig Blundell on drums, and they all recorded their parts independently.
Indeed, Blundell recorded his drums in hotel rooms through Europe as he was touring with Steve Hackett at the time.
The results are simply jaw-dropping. If you didn’t have this information, you would swear blind that the entire album was recorded together in the same studio. The performances from each member are of the highest calibre, and I would say it’s certainly the best each member has sounded on a Frost* album.
John Mitchell remains one of rock music’s most criminally underrated guitarists. His phrasing and touch are just an orgasm for the ears and for Blundell to perform at this level in a hotel room speaks wonders to his talent.
Nathan King holds down the bottom end with class and a deftness of touch that borders on genius. Put all of those elements together, along with Godfrey’s masterful keyboard playing and voice, and you have the perfect modern-sounding progressive rock album that you could wish for.
Life In The Wires, like I said at the start of this review, is my album of the year and I really hope Frost* get to take this glorious album on tour as it would be a mind-blowing show.
Plus. I would get a Frost* carnet t-shirt that I suggested to Jem during our interview.
Frost* – Life In The Wires
A – Skywaving
Life In The Wires (Part 1)
This House Of Winter
Solid State Orchestra
B – Evaporator
Strange World
Idiot Box
Absent Friends
C – School (Introducing The All Seeing Eye)
Propergander
Sign Of Life
Moral And Consequences
D – Life In The Wires (Part 2)
Starting Fires
