I have to confess that it took me a while to get past the fact that there aren’t any violins on this album. I had just assumed that the band name would mean that they were going to be focused on that instrument, such as Violinski were in the Seventies, but no, this band is named after a painting rather than the main source of melody. Former by Vincent Defresne some years ago, ‘More Thrill & Never Ending Blessings’ was released in 2013 and is their debut album. Here we have a band that in many ways seems more a project than a full group, such is the importance of Vincent’s vocals and acoustic guitars (he of course wrote all the songs as well). The emotion here is palpable, and it is this that keeps the listener engaged as if it wasn’t that I would have found it hard to make it all the way through as to me the songs just don’t have enough within them to keep me interested.
They lose their way on the third track, “Shy People”, but do bounce back somewhat with the next “Do Worry Be Sad” which is the longest on the album, but a seed of discontent had been sown in my mind and unfortunately it stayed that way until the end. Overall I get the feeling that they are just step away from having a really good album within them, but this isn’t quite it. They do show plenty of promise though, moving between crossover prog and more independent and acoustic styles. I have seen plenty of references to Dead Can Dance, but one could also throw in The Rattlers and The Peppercorns among others, with quite an Eighties feel to some pieces. This isn’t something to which I will often be returning but I am looking forward to see if the next one is the step up that it needs to be as that could be quite something.
