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The first two tracks ("Second Son" and "The Crowning") on Ex Reverie's debut CD are stumbling blocks for me. It's not that they're bad songs, they good for what they are. But what they are is (good) mid-90's alt-rock, you can clearly hear the influence of The Cranberries and Sarah Mclachlan (respectively). There's nothing wrong with taking influence from that era, my real problem is that these first couple of opening numbers are misleading: they don't prepare you for the beauty and depth of the rest of this album.
It's the third track, the amazing "Dawn Comes for Us All", that truly sets the tone for "The Door into Summer". It begins by sounding like not one, but two magical invocations carefully chosen to create a hypnotic vibe that locks our attention into the rest of the number. From there it weaves and winds it's way via alchemical wedding until we end up in territory that's clearly just on the other side of the fairy veil from Morphine's "low rock". But where Morphine used a two-string bass and baritone saxophone, Ex Reverie apply cello and violin. It's hard to create a song that melds a variety of songs styles and instrumentation to create the vehicle/vessel intended to take the listener on a transformative journey. The Doors tried with "Celebration of the Lizard" but could never fold their song fragments into a cohesive whole. Ex Reverie has done this with "Dawn Comes for Us All" and this is the piece that should have set the stage for the rest of the album by being the first track.
"Dawn Comes for Us All" doesn't just earn it's (may)pole position because of it's heroic metamorphosis aspect, it really sets the tone for the rest of the album. After listening to this track you know what you're in for on "The Door into Summer": a rich tapestry that has been woven from elements of medieval folk and fuzzed out rock. This is a tapestry where deep earthy undertones are contrasted with sparkling bits of psychedelia. The end result deserves attention because it manages to combine folk and rock into something that *isn't* just a variant of country music.
If the first two selections had been buried farther in the collection, and "Dawn Comes for Us All" had been given it's rightful place as the CD's opening siren, I think "The Door into Summer" would be an even more effective work of music as exploratory fantasy.
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Ex Reverie:
http://www.exreverie.com/
http://www.myspace.com/exreverie
Language of Stone:
http://www.languageofstone.com/
http://www.myspace.com/languageofstones
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