{"id":19497,"date":"2020-09-13T05:30:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T09:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19497"},"modified":"2020-09-13T09:55:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T13:55:59","slug":"album-review-staring-into-nothing-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/13\/album-review-staring-into-nothing-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Staring Into Nothing \u2013 Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The album opens with an understated track (\u201cWinter\u201d) that\u2019s not especially indicative of where things will go musically. It\u2019s part of a four-song suite, and \u201cSpring\u201d is (perhaps as expected) more upbeat and textured. The music is straightforward rock, with subtle, understated sonic touches throughout. The band itself features multi-instrumentalists Steve Rogers and Kurt Barabas, but it\u2019s the roster of players backing them that may well provide some useful touchstones as to the sophistication of the music. That list includes drummer Gregg Bissonette (Ringo\u2019s All-Starrs, among many other credits), King Crimson touch guitarist Trey Gunn, and guitarist extraordinaire Mike Keneally.<\/p>\n

But it’s red herring time: while those names might lead one to suspect that Love<\/em> is a prog-leaning set, it\u2019s really not. There\u2019s a progressive mindset at work, especially in terms of the musicianship, but the songs are uncluttered and accessible. The album blows by quickly, but highlights include the single-worthy \u201cBeautiful Delusion,\u201d the catchy synth-pop flavored \u201cThe Ties That Bind\u201d and the album\u2019s most ambitious (and successful) piece, \u201cAshes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had forgotten about this until moments before posting this review, but I reviewed an earlier Staring Into Nothing<\/i> album in 2018. Power<\/i><\/a> was, I am now self-reminded, the first in an album trilogy. Love<\/i> is the second, and War<\/i> is coming next (if you want it.)<\/p>\n

Horns, violins, cellos and backing vocals \u2013 all real<\/i>, by the way; not out of a box \u2013 help to make Love<\/i> a finely textured, organic and enjoyable listening experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The album opens with an understated track (\u201cWinter\u201d) that\u2019s not especially indicative of where things will go musically. It\u2019s part of a four-song suite, and \u201cSpring\u201d is (perhaps as expected) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65],"tags":[3337],"class_list":["post-19497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-staring-into-nothing","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19497"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19654,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19497\/revisions\/19654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}