Door One

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There’s No Ghost Like An Old Ghost” is next, kicking off with Jeremy Stacey’s drums, a highlight of many tracks on this album. Starting with the sounds of nature, which lead to some quite dark and ominous music and the sound of footsteps – it conjures in my mind a Twin Peaks soundtrack type atmosphere. Trusted co-producer/engineer Patrick Phillips oversaw the album’s completion after Longdon’s untimely death in November 2021. David will certainly be missed but his legacy lives on in his recorded works and this album will certainly be a part of that legacy that he leaves us. This is a very personal song and its lyrics reveal much about who David was, so it’s good that he found peace with Sarah, even though that was ended abruptly.

David had also finally, after many years, begun to gain both widespread acclaim and respect, furthermore he had found satisfaction in his life with partner Sarah Ewing. This is a difficult album if you knew the man but it’s wonderful to hear what he had been working on in these days before he left us. This album was completed carefully by four musicians: Jeremy Stacey (King Crimson, Eric Clapton, Noel Gallagher, Sheryl Crow, The Finn Brothers), Theo Travis (Steven Wilson, Soft Machine, Gong), Steve Vantsis (Fish) and Gary Bromham (Bjork, Sheryl Crow, George Michael). It’s a reflection on the quality experience of singing to an audience, no doubt drawn from David’s experience of doing just that: “I hit the stage as they strike up the band, the audience moves to the beat.Watch It Burn’s low piano line, new wave guitar riff and great Stacey/Vantsis groove power along as Longdon revisits a toxic relationship with an alcohol-dependent ex-lover.

It opens with Into The Icehouse, an instrumental, ambient piece of birdsong and minimal piano tones playing almost a lament. However, David’s partner Sarah and all the key protagonists involved in its creation agreed that David would want the world to hear the album.

Right from the opener “Into the Icehouse” with its cinematic music, you can tell that David was trying to do something new. Album bello, ispirato, complesso ma accessibile, la cui qualità riprodotta sul vinile (nero, naturalmente) è ineccepibile e di gran resa sonora. Plus we see how it affected the family, both literal and the band-family – our “loss” in no way compares to their… but we feel it.

The opening has hints of David Crosby’s jazzy inflections and song structures as well as the harmonies. Rock doesn’t need saving in 2024, but it’s nice to be reminded just how thrilling and relatable three chords and the truth can still be.The epic track ‘The Letting Go’ is simply one of the best pieces of music I’ve ever heard - by anyone … ever; full of atmosphere and meaning with a beautiful soundscape. The album closer, “Love Is All” feels like an emerging from the pain of Letting Go, and finding your place of calm. It’s a good thing to know that this album was 95% complete at the time of David’s passing and so what we are hearing is pretty much his complete vision for this set of songs.