The Bathers - Sirenesque
And again we fulfill a dream and bring THE BATHERS from Glasgow for their first gig since 1998 (!) to Germany. The band has picked up their chamber-pop trilogy of the 90s after more than 20 years of family break and released a celebrated successor with "Sirenesque" in 2023. The band led by songwriter and crooner Chris Thomson knows how to produce sumptuous, orchestral pop music like hardly anyone else and has not lost a bit of their touch over the years.
Read a more detailed brilliant review by Werner Herpell on Musikreview.de:
If you really had no idea about a band from your youth (well, the advanced youth in the 90s), it was THE BATHERS. The project led by Scottish gentleman-songwriter Chris Thomson had released some crooner albums completely out of the Grunge-Rock and Hip-Hop era at the time, which belong to the most beautiful and moving works of that decade. Then, with the again epic "Pandemonia" of 1999, it was over - they had obviously bathed their fill. As it was heard, Thomson was busy with family.
What has been hinted at with some re-releases of old BATHERS albums - such as the "Marina Trilogy" released by a small German label - since 2020 has now been confirmed: There is once again interest in the grand songs of Chris Thomson. And what a buzz it is - at least in his homeland, the enthusiasm for "Sirenesque" and the return of THE BATHERS is enormous. That their new work is the very best, the opus magnum in a tumultuous career has been read more than once about this band - but in the current case, it does not make the assertion wrong.
(...)
But now let's talk about the music - because it is at least as spectacular (if you have a weakness for emotional, lushly orchestrated songs and can connect Chris Thomson's singing with Tom Waits, Van Morrison, or Scott Walker). "Sirenesque" is an album that you should absolutely listen to in its entirety, immersing yourself in its melancholic moods - the opposite of Spotify snack stuff.
From the instrumentally sweeping romantic opener "Culzean" (only Thomson on piano and a bit of birdsong) to fabulous baroque pop ballads like "Locomotion Is Easy" and "The Camelia House," to the pieces of the second half of the album, which burst with orchestral grandeur, such as "Lost Bravado," "Feathers, Books And Lace," and "She Rose Through The Isles" (featuring the Scottish Session Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic) - yes, THE BATHERS have never held back, but here the band around Thomson, Hazel Morrison, and Callum McNair goes all out as if there were no tomorrow.
Three songs from this wonderful sophisticated pop album must be highlighted. Track two, the seven-minute title track "Sirenesque," presents for the first time in many years Thomson's previously strangely "worn" but now perfectly aged baritone voice for a man around 60, alongside some fantastic guitar solos from Thomson and Chris Montague on a sea of strings and choirs. "Garlands" is presented not only with a beautifully animated video, but the song also belongs melodically and production-wise to the highlights. And "Welcome To Bellevue" delights again towards the end with the combination of symphonic opulence and distinctive electric guitar sounds.
Even "Sirenesque," around 30 years after the start of THE BATHERS, is of course still a completely timeless album. Who nowadays gathers a dozen band musicians and two orchestras in Glasgow and Prague studios for a comeback with uncertain outcomes to record such oversized songs? Who delivers purely instrumental bonus tracks that have more in common with modern classical music by Aaron Copland or Ennio Morricone than with pop?
But Chris Thomson has now apparently returned to stay - he probably still has top material left over from the fruitful "Sirenesque" sessions of THE BATHERS. "I'm not really into double albums," he says. "It makes more sense to me to release the 'Sirenesque' album now and then put out a second batch within the next six months or so." Because: "Now that I've waited so long, it would be nice to use that momentum a little." Very much agreed.
CONCLUSION: Anyone who could relate to the darkly romantic Scottish 80s/90s sound of The Blue Nile or Trashcan Sinatras probably also had a fondness for Chris Thomson's project THE BATHERS. Now the band with the singer and his unusual crooner voice is back - and more impressive than ever. "Sirenesque" bathes in epic beauty like few productions of recent years. And the twelve pieces are not even overloaded - these touching sound paintings simply require the entire broad orchestral palette. A baroque pop masterpiece.
Doors: 19:15
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
