Artist: Anathema
Album: Distant Satellites
Year: 2014
Label: Kscope Records
Review: Diego Camargo
Thoughts:
Anathema, Nosound, Steven Wilson, Frequency Drift and thousand of other bands from Kscope has a sound that for me… doesn’t work.
They have everything but Rock on their music, they have Ambient, Post Rock, Alternative Rock, Indie Pop, Electronic…. but not Prog ROCK.
I tried several Anathema albums, including the ‘everybody’s love’ last album Weather Systems (2012). I told myself that this music wasn’t for me and that I wouldn’t listen to it again, but what can I say, I’m a hopeful guy, so I gave it a try on their new album Distant Satellites (2014).
For the fans, that mainly are not Prog fans but Post- Prog-Kscope fans, it’ll hit the nail, right on the head. It’s Pop but full of ‘somber-teenager-dark-angst-don’t-know- where-I’m-going’ kind of music. But this time without excitement. I admit that even if…
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Progarchy 
Thanks for the repost 🙂
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Thank you, Diego. Sorry I missed it the first time.
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I listened to `Distant Satellites` for the first, second and third times today. I disagree with what was written on this site a week or so ago. The comments made then and everyone is entitled to their opinion, greatly clouded my expectations. I am not a big Anathema fan, not really a fan at all, I have the last album that`s it. I totally disagree with the kicking the album got here and the criticism in the article above is undeserved. What do I think of the album it ain`t that bad, I enjoyed it.
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Very glad to know you enjoyed it, Richie. Thanks for the comments. For what it’s worth, I hope you keep enjoying it. Yours, BB
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There must be something wrong with me, but I like this album. I do see all the negatives that all you ProgArchists ponit out, but I still somehow like it. Repeated listens make this album more and more enjoyable, despite all the faults.
It’s no “Weather Systems”, but it’s not all that bad, really.
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Michal, thanks for replying. I listened to it again this morning, and I liked it a bit more than I did the first dozen times. It’s not bad, it’s just not on the trajectory of the three albums. If this had come out a decade ago, it would really be great. The market has just changed so much with the flood of prog releases, and the best, in my opinion, has to be even better. Big Big Train, The Tangent, and Cosmograf have really led the way. Anathema had all ability to get there, but went in an alt-pop kind of direction. To my mind, it’s a letdown. Yours, BB
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I totally agree with you. It must be my innate affinity with the band that makes me like the new album probably more than it’s worth. Their alt-pop direction IS a letdown but I can’t help but thoroughly enjoy some parts of “…Satellites”, like the title track or the “Lost Song” trilogy. It’s all a, well, ‘silent enigma’ to me. I can’t really objectively judge the album as it’s a follow-up to my (probably) all-time favourite, and I could easily make a list of better 2014 albums. But I try to listen to it for what it is and the experience is really pleasant, so I can’t stop wondering: isn’t it what it’s all about?
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Michal, I don’t disagree. If Weather Systems excluded the final track, it would be one of the best albums of all time. A top 20 prog album to be sure. The final track ruins it for me. I’m glad the band tried to do something different, it just–to my mind–failed. The guy’s story wasn’t worth hearing once let alone every time I listen to the album.
I do really like tracks 4 and 9 on Distant Satellites.
And, I’m certainly not one who thinks progressive must ALWAYS progress–at least toward innovation. But, it should always progress toward beauty.
Distant Satellites lacks the intensity of the previous two albums. It’s akin to a field of corporately-farmed daisies rather than a high mountain meadow of wild flowers.
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Yes, Brad, I totally agree with you on the final track on “WS”. I can’t care less about any of Anathema’s ‘narrative’ tracks for that matter (especially “Presence”) – they are boring and overwrought. What did it for me in the case of “WS” as a whole, however, was how coherent and genuinely emotinal the album was. I mean, I see the lyrics are sort of newage-y/cliche, but they complement the music so well that the whole experience was/is, well, breathtaking. And with time – it doesn’t change.
Now there comes “Distant Satellites”. It does lack the intensity of the last two albums. It’s also below the standard the band set for themselves even earlier on. BUT I hardly ever feel anything close to what I feel listening to track number 9. It’s usually reviewed on the basis of it’s electronic/untypical-for-Anathema qualities. But what I like about it is the strength of the songwriting. It’s one of the rare songs that grips me in its very first secnods and doesn’t let go. It’s what I was waiting for. And there are other bits and pieces on the album that make me feel this way.
Now, if I were a reviewer, how would I rate the album? Probably six or seven out of ten. But even now when I think of re-listening it, it’s an inviting tought.
And yet and yet. I hope their new album will NOT continue in this vein.
The beauty and relativity of music;)
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