Full Sun, The

Folksy, jazzy avant-garde, orchestral, this album has a lot going on including some really dark, depressing and devastating lyrics, revolving around a love gone wrong. Challenging to listen to at times, I found some interesting things here. Start with 1, 4, 6, 12. No FCC’s.

1. (3:47) Slow/Mid. Begins with minimal instrumentation of piano and voice leading to a full band with strings. A bit of Josh Ritter, folksy.
2. (5:35) Mid. Ominous with big band, brooding lyrics. Quieter passages with electric guitar solos and background band.
3. (1:36) Mid. Cecil Taylor on acid. Avant-garde jazz, with dreamy ending. Leads into…
4. (5:50) Mid/Fast. Dual drums open, electric guitar a la 70’s classic rock. The music and lyrics seems to try, unsuccessfully, to sound like Zappa. Tripped-out guitar solo half-way through, very psychedelic. Cool organ, leads into…
5. (3:36) Mid. Finishing thought of previous song to begin, then transcends into guitar drone and trippy, jazzy drumming. Really spacey shit.
6. (10:09) Slow/Mid. Return to ‘normalcy’, with sparse instrumentation and focus on lyrics, which are dark and foreboding.
7. (14:06) Mid. Avant-garde beginning with crazy horns, mellows out a bit, then in comes orchestral instruments. Lyrics of despair and darkness. Instrumental part in middle with electric guitar soloing. A roller coaster of emotional passages, very dramatic. Ends with a drum march and bleeds into…
8. (1:23) Slow. Percussion madness under a psychotic male/female humming.
9. (3:41) Mid. Drum-heavy, 60’s, 70’s retro sound, maybe a bit Beach Boys. Cool change half-way through. Nice standard instrumentation, bleeds into…
10. (0:50) Slow. Droney type stuff.
11. (6:51) Slow/Mid. Dark lyrics with similar dark instrumentation, including a gong and psychotic organ. Heavy shit, would not fit in well at a wedding.
12. (7:52) Slow/Mid. Strumming guitar and vocal, self-loathing lyrics. Cool organ and horn passage. Great background vocals. Big wall of sound ending, fades out, with 15 seconds of silence at end.