Label: White Knight Records
Release date: 4. 3. 2022
Production: Peter Jones
Album length: 56.36 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
“A Song of Spring” is the seventh studio album from Tiger Moth Tales, the English neo-prog one-man band. The man behind it is blind musical phenomenon Peter Jones, who isn’t just a superb singer but also a stunning multi-instrumentalist. Besides singing, he almost always plays every instrument on his records himself and writes the lion’s share of the lyrics.
“A Song of Spring” picks up where Jones’s/Tiger Moth Tales’ 2017 album “The Depths of Winter” left off. That one was marked by wintry themes and a more melancholic, darker mood than is usual for Jones’s music, while “A Song of Spring” has a far more optimistic, springtime atmosphere, even if a few tracks also carry a melancholic, ambient streak.
Jones is a huge fan of symphonic prog rock who became the keyboardist of the legendary Camel a few years back and recently started playing in Francis Dunnery’s It Bites too. With “A Song of Spring” he has once again cooked up a feast for lovers of old-school progressive rock under a heavy Genesis and Camel influence. Along the way, he’s slipped a bit more folk, world music and jazz rock fusion into some of the compositions, the latter mostly thanks to the extra helping of saxophone. On keyboards and lyrics, John Holden helped Peter out on a few pieces. Holden also designed the cover of “A Song of Spring”, while the guitar solo on “The Light” comes from none other than Camel’s cult guitarist Andy Latimer.
The cheerful “Spring Fever”, with its laid-back vibe and quick tempo, kicks off the album in a thoroughly playful way, while rowdy sax passages make sure the whole thing doesn’t sound too much like classic Genesis. Jones’s velvety yet melodramatic vocals bring a hefty dose of melody via an excellent chorus. Before he dove into his favorite genre, progressive rock, Jones also dabbled in pop rock. So on top of the traditional, experimental and complex prog virtues, he’s got an outstanding knack for crafting melodic arrangements and infectious choruses.
“Forester”, with its bright whistle arrangements, is steeped in a pastoral, nostalgic, at times almost mystical and medieval mood. The orchestral arrangements are played at an outstanding level, and the brilliant guitar solo is all the more astonishing given that Peter plays the instrument in a completely unique way because of his blindness. “Dance Till Death” is a much gloomier piece, which makes it stand out quite a bit from the album’s otherwise ambient look. The chorus sounds almost creepy, and the instrumental backdrop would fit nicely into some horror flick. This dark epic would probably go down well with the Genesis guys too, since, saxophone bits aside, it’s a bit reminiscent of their 1976–1977 period.
“Holi” is a relatively short but splendid piece. Thanks to a variety of percussion and whistles, it also has some world music influences, mainly from the Arab and Indian worlds, which means Peter Gabriel, one of Jones’s main vocal role models, would probably give it his blessing too. “The Goddess and the Green Man” opens as a fairly simple ballad with symphonic prog and folk rock elements, with lyrics drawing on classic Celtic and Anglo-Saxon folklore about divine protectresses of nature and green men. The art rock feat “Mad March Hare”, with its cheerful chorus, epic vocal harmonies and jazzy sax passages, is among the most interesting achievements on “A Song of Spring”. It’s also one of the few tracks on the album with a few humorous moments, of which there were far more on Peter’s earlier records.
The melodramatic epic “Rapa Nui”, fittingly for its title, ambiently evokes a wooden boat riding choppy waves toward an island that is still mysterious today, the one with the famous stone heads. The lyrics tell the same story, about the arrival of the first settlers on Easter Island. The peak of this outstanding composition comes in the middle, when an orchestral-leaning instrumental section kicks in. It could easily be the backdrop for some film spectacle. For all his multi-instrumental brilliance, it’s Peter’s excellent vocals that breathe soul into the songs on the album and turn most of them into real masterpieces.
Among the achievements that deserve top marks is definitely the epic and wildly upbeat finale “The Light”. Peter’s “boss” from Camel, the aforementioned Andy Latimer, guests on it with his unmistakable guitar solo, the kind that’ll make every prog fan lick their lips. This brilliant composition has all the ingredients of a proper Tiger Moth Tales anthem. It’ll no doubt become a regular in Peter’s live sets. The instrumental bonus track “Maytime” also sounds great. Of all the tracks on the album, it leans furthest toward jazz rock fusion, and it reflects Peter’s remarkable sense of rhythmic variety and arrangement diversity, with plenty of melodic highlights.
Anyone who expected anything less than a new masterpiece from a musical phenomenon like Peter Jones was totally wrong. “A Song of Spring”, his latest effort under the Tiger Moth Tales name, is pure joy for prog rock fans, young and old. This album, seasoned with positive energy, is the best proof that even after the catastrophic last two years, ‘spring always chases winter away’. “A Song of Spring” positively bursts with optimism, and let’s hope Peter spreads some of that optimism to all those experimental, innovative and non-corporate artists whom two years of nonstop global crises have left creatively blocked or pushed down the wrong path.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Spring Fever (6:52)
2. Forester (7:51)
3. Dance ’til Death (10:20)
4. Holi (2:46)
5. The Goddess and the Green Man (2:39)
6. Mad March Hare (4:00)
7. Rapa Nui (7:34)
8. Light (15:25)
Musicians:
Peter Jones – vocals, keyboards, drum programming, guitars, clarinet, recorder, ukulele, percussion
Special guest:
Andy Latimer (Camel) – guitar solo on track no. 15
