Experiencing and navigating through The Fog Is Filled With Spirits means getting lost in its otherwordly record cover first. Highly immersive and atmospheric, the sleeve leaves you daydreaming and flickering through its metaphorical and surrealistic elements. Gazing at it, you will find boundaries dissolving between dream and reality. You become part of the picture, slipping into that eerie fog. The first thing that catches your eye is this not so blurry silhouette whose hands are trying to reach the moon, it seems ready to levitate. Is it a ghost? One thing then strikes you, the silhouette has no head but its face with no eyes appears up close next to the album title, as if it was whispering those words. True artists don’t state the obvious, they arouse the viewer or listener’s imagination, which is precisely what All In The Golden Afternoon is doing here.
The opener “Magic Eyes” lures you even more with its sibylline vocals, it fully propels you into an uncanny dimension. The Goldstars are masters at depicting the elements in their songs, they have the power to paint not only mental pictures but the different sensations that come with your surroundings. “The Fear and The Flame” is a tune of hypnotic magnitude whose musical texture properly sets the tone of the record, it reminds of Broadcast circa 2005, especially with Rachel’s enchanting voice. The fog is filled with the spirit of Trish Keenan. That beat holds you spellbound. The foggy journey through the record is dotted with various recollections of places the band is smitten with. “The Long Goodbye” is a wondrous number that echoes “The Fear and The Flame”, it captures how hard it is to leave a place you hold dear to your heart. The melody is adorned with longing fairy-like backing vocals and attired all over in a sorcerous atmosphere.
All songs on the record are a sort of emotional rollercoaster, bittersweet and captivating that keeps you hallucinating. “With Your Eyes” lets you penetrate further into the fog with an angelical beginning and a stark ending.
The title track makes a final spectral pinnacle, signifying the end of the passage from blur to clarity. A staggering conclusion to the record. Let your soul get lost in the fog again, you may have a visual and sensory epiphany. The Fog Is Filled With Spirits was released in October 2016.
https://allinthegoldenafternoon.bandcamp.com/album/the-fog-is-filled-with-spirits
