Taking the jewel case from its plastic wrapping, this Bluesbunny finds that it's cracked - I've a bad feeling about this one.
The CD starts well with a clean, if somewhat thin sounding, finger picked waltz time acoustic guitar refrain. The fragile vocals come in with a faux weeping quality which seems to add to the rather pretentious nature of the lyrics like "The sun will rape the night. Again and again and she can't rebel"; my Bluesbunny ears droop with disappointment. After sitting through 24 minutes and 59 seconds of school-boy poetry I'm left wondering how A Matthew Prina's songs would sound if he tried to actually sing instead of affecting the heartbroken Jesters whispers and wailing that over-shadows what is actually some beautifully simple and gentle acoustic guitar work.
And, regrettably, the feeling didn't improve after multiple exposures.
This album is a bleak listening experience, with even the highlight of the CD, the delicate, child-like instrumental, "To Decay Softly to the Ground", allowing too little light to penetrate the black cloud that At the End of Summer seems to live under. There is something in there trying to get out but the introspective nature of it all is likely to induce indifference than excitement.