NAD SYLVAN is a bit different to what many of our Rock Out Stand Out readers would usually listen to. Ok, maybe quite a bit different, but before you scroll on to the next review, please bear with me a moment.
Variety is the spice of life right? As long as it’s of a good quality and you can appreciate the musicianship, then it deserves some consideration, it can even be an education, an enlightenment. To explore things outside the norm of which we create for ourselves can only broaden our minds. Listening to NAD SYLVAN and this upcoming album Spiritus Mundi you will find yourself in a completely different mindset. One of peace and tranquillity. A moment of calm to gather your thoughts. If music genres were represented by places, your usual favourites may be likened to a bustling pub, buzzing from the energy of the crowd. Well Spiritus Mundi would be a quiet beach where you just lay looking out at the ocean contemplating life.
When you first listen to NAD, the one thing that stands out is a similarity to CAT STEVENS, which is fine by me as I like his work. They have a very comparable tone to their voices, however, as you make your way through the album the comparison fades and you drift off into a land of NAD.
This album follows on from the trilogy The Vampirate. For one of the tracks on the 2019 The Regal Bastard (the final part of the trilogy), NAD had been approached by Andrew Laitres, a song writer who had been working on The Lake Isle of Innisfree, to ask if he would sing it. They got together and ended up adding it to the album as a bonus track.
This turned out to be the start of something special as they once again collaborated to conjure up this latest masterpiece.
The lyrics on Spiritus Mundi are from the poems by William Butler Yeats, as was their previous track The Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Not having to write lyrics meant that NAD and ANDREW could focus almost solely on the musical arrangements. With some beautiful acoustic guitar playing, backed up by fantastic orchestral work, the music has been superbly put together. NAD acknowledges the efforts he went to in order to get the vocals perfected to bring it all together. “The whole album is based around my vocals and Andrew’s guitars spiced up with some orchestral stuff. I worked very hard on the vocals on this one. I would link bits together I thought really worked and then would go back to them and do another take on a word that could be more emphasized.”
I have picked out Sailing to Byzantium and The Stolen Child as my “favourites”, however, the whole album is full of gems, there were others that were close to joining these two.
As for the meanings behind the lyrics, well they are there for you to interpret in your own way.
NAD is more than happy with this latest album, “I’m so excited by its release. Everyone that has heard it, loves it. They think that this is my best album and I tend to agree. It’s a bit different than what I have done before and that’s a good thing. “
Well I concur, I love it too. Give it a try, you just might feel the same.
Rating: 9/10
Words: Dave Jones
