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| Album Rating: A- |
Let's not beat around the bush:
On Land and in the Sea is a weird album. It takes relatively normal musical elements - constant tempos, 4/4 time, keys that are defined firmly as major or minor - and essentially throws them out the window in favor of an art-rock style that's sure to ruffle a few feathers. Songs like "The Stench of Honey" and "Two Bites Of Cherry" employ rapid tempo and meter shifts with no warning, relying on staccato guitar chords to anchor the song rather than the drums. "Horsehead" is ominous with its alternating male-female vocals, both with an incredibly strong British accent, over a creaking, whirring beat and psychedelic piano line, an ordeal that lasts for less than a minute and a half but makes its presence felt over its entire runtime. "The Everso Closely Guarded Line," as the title might suggest, is an exceedingly odd song, mostly staying in 6/8 but changing up its tempo at unexpected times. What really makes it weird, though, is the cacophony of instruments that surround the song - organ, synth, strings, and some sort of percussive instrument like a xylophone, a baby's cry and other similar instruments surround the song's art-rock core.
