The career of Anathema has been interesting one. Starting life as a powerful death-doom band back in the ‘90s, they have transitioned through alternative and progressive rock, evolving and growing with each release. Now on album number eleven, as the band continues their ascent into the stratosphere with ‘The Optimist’, it showcases some of their most ambitious work to date.
Picking up the story of their stunning 2001 effort, ‘A Fine Day To Exit’, the album follows the character in the narrative that was left open. The fate of the protagonist in the story was never revealed, whereas ‘The Optimist’ brings to light the solitary life they created. While the concept is still moderately ambiguous, the song titles alone signal a new start for the character.
Musically, the album is Anathema at their most unique. Electronic beats dance their way through ‘Leaving It Behind’, adding extra drive to the up-tempo, major key rhythms. It is quite a direct delivery in the vein of the bands “alternative rock” era, but as the album unfolds they venture into more expansive territory. The Cavanagh brothers and Lee Douglas’s vocals marry together through the ethereal title track, with lucid pianos and synths providing the backbone.
Despite the sombre feel of the lyrical content as the character in the story drifts further into a new life, ‘The Optimist’ is far from a mournful affair. Each track is bright and uplifting. The swirling haze of ‘Springfield’, where Douglas takes the lead with haunting vocal melodies, cascades into post-rock beauty, shifting into shimmering indie-pop on ‘Can’t Let Go’. It is befitting of the literal description of optimism, where goodness will always prevail, and there is light in a seemingly dark world.
‘The Optimist’ is the kind of album you need to spend time with so that the components sink in properly. As with every Anathema record, it isn’t just background music, and right through to their closing opus, ‘Back To The Start’, which again leaves the story open-ended, there is a lot to take in. It is a majestic and ethereal trip to lose yourself in, and another benchmark in the continued evolution of Anathema.
GLEN BUSHELL