Pelican – What We All Come To Need

It was about time for Pelican to release their new release, shortly after the previous album ”City Of Echoes”. It’s been only two and a half years, and punctual as always, when it comes to full-length releases, they offer us their fourth complete release entitled ”What We All Come To Need”, being also their first album for Southern Lord. Here we have to do with pure evolution to the band’s sound, in a more easy sounding recording. Especially when it comes to be compared to their very first releases such as the colossal ”Australasia” where they definitely sounded much heavier and with more distortion.

Let’s begin to take a journey to this new achievement, by starting with the sound. First of all, those not knowing the band, have to be aware that we have to deal with an instrumental act, whose orchestrations steal the impressions from the beginning and take you each time in a tripy situation. It’s some of the times where you stand lying in your bed, sofa or whatever else, relaxing from the whole day’s stress, either in or out of work, and Pelican are the helping kit in order to be left completely loose. What makes things much better each time, is that you’ll face a tight unit where all works correctly.

Eight songs lasting about 51 minutes, with most tracks above five minutes long, and half of them above seven minutes, such as the two openers, ”Glimmer” and ”The Creeper”, that put you straight from the beginning to the climate of the album. Eerie music, where as much as you listen to it, you have to praise the band for not having vocals, as the result would not sound so unique for sure, and also you wouldn’t get the same vibe inside you. ”Ephemeral” is a track that gets connected very much to the follower ”Specks Of Light”, while ”Strung Up From The Sky” could become many people’s favourite.

As the album reaches its ending, your insides have reached a point where they have emptied all concerns, all stress and all drawbacks of your everyday life. It is very pleasant that an album can offer you such feelings, especially when it comes to instrumental tracks. Theorytically it could be rather boring or tire you easily, but in the case of Pelican, all incidents are balanced perfectly to make you feel comfortable with their music. They can take you from the hand and drive you to the melodies of ”An Inch Above Sand” or the title track with the sweet finishing and open a new door for you.

This is the door that leads to new soundscapes and the final track called ”Final Breath” is the perfect ending. Only this time there are lyrics on this, for sure the track that stands on its own compared to others and that leaves the rays of light cover you and make you feel complete in all terms. Pelican produce music for the mind. This is food for thought, you can listen to it in all occasions, it will help you the same and make things better and the weight of the world seem lighter. I wonder how all these would sound live. It is most certain though, that some more magic could find its way to us all.