His Name Is Alive - Tecuciztecatl (2014) 320 / Lossless

His Name Is Alive are one of those unclassifiable bands who never seem to make the same album twice. Starting off as a wispy ethereal ‘4AD’ band they soon veered through a batch of styles including lop sided Beach Boys pop (‘Stars on ESP’), soul and R&B (‘Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth’), pretty much their two best albums.

Things start less than promisingly on this, their latest opus. Opener ‘The Examination’ is an overlong (13 minutes), over cluttered , over solo’d piece of of rock music. Whichever style His Name is Alive take up, the vocals are usually fairly consistent (despite being sung by different people), on ‘See You in a Minute’ its this ethereal style which stops the album just short of sounding like some kind of Allman Brothers tribute. Oh dear. The album is split into Side A and B on the CD and I’ve found absolutely nothing to enjoy on Side A. Over to Side B then and at first nothing has changed. The sweet choral opening of ‘Reflect Yourself’ soon gives way to rock guitars reminding me of Arthur Lee’s post ‘Forever Changes’ work, sweet acoustic openings giving way to horrific work-outs.

It’s taken until ‘I Believe Your Heart Is No longer Inside This Room’ before I’ve found something pretty enjoyable, it reminds me a lot of Mice Parade as does ‘African Violet Casts a Spell’ with it’s clever water splashing percussion. I still maintain main man Warren Defever is a great producer with lots of good ideas, I’m just not into the rawk stylings of the first half of the record. It get’s better as it goes on though, the last 4 tracks being the best on the record, the closing, woefully short and folky 'The Cup' is as sweet as a nut. Just wish they could have got that rock stuff out of their system without committing it to tape.