| Artist: | Mostly Autumn |
| Title: | The Next Chapter DVD |
| Label: | Classic Rock Legends CRL1120 |
| Length(s): | 90 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 2003 |
| Month of review: | [01/2004] |
| 1) | Forge Of Sauron | |
| 2) | Greenwood The Great | |
| 3) | The Gap Is Too Wide | |
| 4) | Never The Rainbow | |
| 5) | Noise From My Head | |
| 6) | Please | |
| 7) | The Last Climb | |
| 8) | Shindig | |
| 9) | Spirit Of Autumn Past | |
| 10) | Prints In The Stone | |
| 11) | Mother Nature | |
| 12) | Something In Between | |
| 13) | Goodbye Alone | |
| 14) | Pure White Light |
The disc is a string of material recorded on several gigs and otherwise in the period May 2002 till April 2003. The first two tracks were from The Mean Fiddler, May 2002. Especially Greenwood The Great comes across brilliantly, being a great stage for Mostly Autumn's abilities. Unfortunately the sound is pretty hissy. The first track introduces the band walking through a city.
The Gap Is Too Wide is filmed in the valley Borrowdale, a playbacked studio recording. Nice pictures. Highly acoustic until halfway, with a humming band in the back, but when the electricity comes in... It's amazing how little cables you need for electrical instruments when you're playbacking in the free nature. Sure, we get that kind of stuff all the time on MTV and the like, but usually it's done in a way that's a bit better, really. The track is great, but the playbacking could have been a lot better.
Never The Rainbow was recorded in New Jersey. The liner notes tell Findlay's monitor didn't work, due to which she couldn't hear herself. That explains what needed explaining. A little bit of footage that could have been skipped especially, since Noise From My Head was recorded at the same Classic Rock Festival. One track would have been enough to give an impression. Also, the material is a bit flatter and rockier lacking in epicity (we make 'm up as we go along). But I guess that's the transition.
Please is from a performance at the 2002 Canterbury festival. After a rusty start the track kicks off decently, although the pounding bass is just a little too present. Josh's voice is decent, but he is more limited in his vocal possibillities than Findlay is. The Last Climb was recorded at the same festival, but features visual footage from a climb and some playbacking in Borrowdale. Despite how pretty Borrowdale is, the insincerity of the playback footage is almost an insult to the band's stage performances. This half-acting clearly is outside the band's strengths.
Shindig is mainly a flute duel between Findlay and Goldthorpe, although Findlay shifts to a brush percussion instrument halfway through (looking a little too coy while playing it).
Spirit Of Autumn Past mingles New Jersey footage with some playback footage from Central Park. This is another one of those rocky tracks. Since Josh is the main vocalist, Findlay's monitor problems don't really surface. But the trite playback footage (not a lot of it, fortunately) and rocky feel makes this track another one on the wrong side of the ballot.
Prints In The Stone brings us more Borrowdale playback. You get the drift.
Mother Nature was recorded at the Canterbury Festival. One of the more epic tracks, one of the better tracks on this disc.
Something In Between is sort of a music video (in the MTV sense). It is a pretty good choice for such an endeavour, considering its obvious attraction and strong melody. Despite the visual effects, sort of Video Killed The Radio Stars, this playback material comes across better than the other stuff.
Goodbye Alone is campfire singing, where the original sound wasn't recorded for lack of equipment, so that it was used as a front for studio material. Wonder about the electric guitar footage, though. That goes against the suggest spontaneity of the event. But maybe that's just the cynical old me kicking in.
Apart from the main dish we find a five minute documentary, or rather look in the kitchen, of making Passengers. Which for the main part shows some extra video footage for Letting Go (I think it's called), the song that sounds like a derivative of Something In Between.
So, a lot of criticism in all, of a band I like even. If you're looking for Mostly Autumn material, I'd suggest you stick to the studio material and the previous DVD. Sure, you'll miss some stuff, but that material shows the band at its best.