Long Earth - Towards the Sy

Long Earth - Towards the Sky

Bakeneko

Combine a few Scots with a Dutch singer and you’ve got Long Earth.
And Long Earth has a new album ‘Towards the Sky’. The band, Mike Baxter - Keyboards, Kenny McCabe - Drums, Renaldo McKim - Guitars, David McLachlan - Bass and Maaike Siegerist - Lead vocals, wrote the album together while experimenting in the rehearsal studio. And it’s an album with a theme! Towards the Sky inspired by astronomy and space exploration. But it also makes us aware of the limitations and responsibilities we have as humans.

Towards the Sky starts up tempo with ‘Seahorse’. A strong opener and yes it’s prog. The shortest song ‘Wanderlust’ is 5:20 and the longest, ‘The Astronomer’ clocks 11:20. All songs are very melodic and very well composed. 

Long Earth excels in the instrumental parts. Keys, guitar and bass sound really good on this album. Sadly the drums are way to much back in the mix and sound muffled. 

Singer Maaike Siegerist has a beautiful voice. And she sings beautiful too. For me a bit to beautiful, A bit more dynamics in her singing (and sometimes a little rough edge) would make it more interesting. That said, Long Earth has made a very strong album. You can hear that they wrote it together as a band. Certainly for prog lovers who like great keys, guitars and a beautiful female voice this album is absolutely recommended.