“Neon Burning” is an album that has the feel of the past yet Living in Shadows are a band of today so will this album be more than one for the cool kids? Or at least more than one for the cool kids who are now old enough to remember being cool kids.
“Neon Burning” is also the second album by Living in Shadows so this should be an album that demonstrates the true musical intentions of the band. To that end, it would seem to do just that as these eight songs do indeed have much in the way of commonality. The performance of all who are concerned in its making are universally polished and, in a nod to the ways of the jazz meets prog rock past, these songs show a casual approach to getting to their musical point with the assembled musical talent easily managing to stretch these songs out beyond even the ten minute mark. Now, I kind of like this kind of music but it is a prerequisite to have a good singer who can make rambling songs like these work well and Zoe Gilby duly handles her duties with both aplomb and precision even if there is some pretty convincing guitar powered scene stealing courtesy of Mark Williams to be found in “Who Are You?”.
Perhaps you have to be of a certain age, or beyond, to appreciate what goes in to making an album like “Neon Burning.” Or perhaps not for, as the cool kids might say, yesterday is the new today.
The album is available on CD from Bandcamp if you want to get physical.