| Artist: | November |
| Title: | The First Of November |
| Label: | SI Music Simply 59 |
| Length(s): | 58 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1994 |
| Month of review: | 11/1994 |
| 1) | Africa (Where Are You?) | 3.49 |
| 2) | It Kept Me Alive | 5.07 |
| 3) | Memory | 3.29 |
| 4) | With You | 6.29 |
| 5) | New Land's Race | 3.39 |
| 6) | Clown's Overture | 5.20 |
| 7) | Think In Seasons | 4.26 |
| 8) | The Pilgrim | 6.57 |
| 9) | The Desert Talks | 6.02 |
| 10) | Return To '81 (instrumental) | 5.11 |
| 11) | Lion Eyes | 8.03 |
The vocals are definitely Gabrieleske, but there's a difference: after the first few lines, people might think it's Gabriel himself, but it seems like the vocalist can't keep it up all the time, to sound like Gabriel and thus he falls back into a voice that is still reminiscent of the latter, but his mother language shines through (like it is with me when I write reviews for Gibraltar, I mean I can't go on pretending that everything I write seems natural to an American, though I think that anyone can follow what I mean).
So the first song can be easily interpreted as a tribute to World musician Peter Gabriel (with the rhythms and all), but the second song is a more melodic one and reminds me of FAFs accessible work, although the vocals are more intricately arranged.
The third song is a ballad and again we are thoroughly reminded of Gabriel, though I think the song itself isn't that much a Gabriel song. It's too simple. The fourth song is a bit of a doubter. The tempo has gone up a bit and the song a lot heavier than the former ones, but the vocal melodies are below par, though the guitarwork is acceptable too say the least. Missed chance I guess.
The fifth song is slow and moody, so Gabriels back, while the sixth is quite alright and almost every way, save the disfiguring presence of some female vocals. Also, it contains a melody straight from Storm and Thunder by Earth and Fire, but I wouldn't call it stealing, it sounds more a like some kind of joke, you now when some artist puts in a line from his national anthem into a song (usually at the end of it).
Number seven, Think in Seasons sounds lyrically a lot like Seasons End. The song itself is quite uneventful and accessible, but to be honest this might be the a sound for themselves, because it doesn't sound like anything in particular.
Number eight starts off, appropriately with some Gregorian singing. The song itself is quite longthreaded, but still it is subtly build up from the start, starting out to seem uneventful, but the vocals are thus that they really build a tension in some way. Personally I think the guitar solo at the end wasn't a good solution, because it's so overt. I'd rather have them build the song to a climax, but a more powerful one than just a guitar, a crescendo if you like.
The Desert Talks isn't very interesting, suffice to say that it's low key and again Gabriel isn't very far away.
Return to '81 is to be a reminder of good ole Plackband. It's more symphonic than the rest of the music and is quite up-tempo and accessible. This song also contains some tempo changes and might very well be the best song on the album (though it's not a song). I'd like to compare it to a Pendragon instrumental, though this song has horns on it making it sound a bit like Phil Collins' party stampers. The song moves right into Lion Eyes, the longest song on the album. It starts out with bird noises and all, being the perfect prelude for The Lion King. The lyrics do not fit really well on the melody, but the guitar work makes up for it. The style is quite Rothery on this song.
PS. From Plackband we should here more in the future (although the band has long been nonexistent, because SI planned to release some old material by them. I have a single by them (their only vinyl effort as far as I know called Seventy Warriors) and it's quite decent, being in the Genesis vein.