Progressive rock that avoids the show, but not the surprises. “Belief”, Good NightOwl's eleventh album, explores modern, ambitious and airy prog, complex without ever being repulsive or exhibitionistic. Substantially independent from classical references, the album shows some echoes of Gentle Giant or the ascendant impulses of Yes, but in its originality it is rather close to the melodic and open vein of Big Big Train, the art-rock vocation of the latest Leprous or the calm and reflexivity of the Philippine Munimuni (among the surprises of the year 2024).
Behind the project is Daniel Lewis Cupps, an American multi-instrumentalist and producer who has led Good NightOwl since 2011, and who over time has built a multifaceted career, ranging from music to television, up to 3D animation. A creative versatility that is also reflected in the band's sound, as elaborate in detail as it is open to the exploration of different sounds.
AND only since 2020, however, have Good NightOwl started to receive a certain – limited – response among prog fans, thanks to “Liars”, a prog-math-pop album which, in addition to great inventiveness and melodic solidity, he also showed an interest in more delicate and thoughtful nuances, amply exploited in “Belief”.
The album partly abandons both the inclinations of the origins and the more grandiloquent ones of the last “Capital” (2023), approaching in sound to the quiet/loud guitar of Explosions in the Sky and similar (with which a parallel arises spontaneously already in the initial “What They're Hiding”). Interlockings and recombinations, then, recall the mathematical junctures of post-hardcore, even without the impetuosity of the genre: the clean and lulling arpeggios of several songs recall the constructions of Midwest Emo, while a rare case in which the imprint becomes more sharp is “Children Of No Faith”.
Even on the rhythmic front, Good NightOwl prove inventive, inserting odd tempos and shift metrics that give movement to the songs without ever seeming forced. In “Someone Follow Me”, for example, passages in 6 and 4 alternate and overlap, creating a fluid and multifaceted progression. The sound it is also enriched by the presence of secondary instruments, which give depth without weighing the whole thing down: the enveloping flute of “The Exultant Natural State”, a velvety and surprisingly light sax in “Pretend To Know”, and here and there touches of synth, piano and ringing sounds, as in “We Will Float Adrift.” In this refined, almost artificial pop vein of the arrangements, “Belief” can recall the eclectic prog of The Dear Hunter, with a theatricality that is never out of control.
If for those looking for tensions and contrasts the mood overall “Belief” could be a little sugary or monotonous, the album still manages to find an original and refined dimension. And in the long final track, “See The Light”, Good NightOwl demonstrate balance and dynamism, enclosing the different moods and stylistic devices of the album in a complex crescendo. A closure that contains, without forcing, all the nuances of the band.
10/11/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM