The Petal Falls

Want to take a trip to ‘Art Rock’ heaven? Then look no further. The genre in question was created with the intention of listening and contemplation, rather than for dancing. So, when I hear this album was released following eight months of post-production, you know you’re going to find a piece of work with time and energy spent.

The Petal Falls are a five-piece Hard Rock band consisting of Keith Leahy – lead vocal/guitar/keyboards, Robert Harpum – guitars, Robin Tucker – drums, Dave Richards – guitars, Marius Ryndziewicz – bass guitar, plus additional guest keyboards on this album from Duncan Lowe.

The Kent based band actually signed to a label in the nineties, got caught up in said contract, effectively having their musical hands tied, and consequently were not getting any of their material released. Years later, and now out of those contractual chains, they have recently released ‘All These Years’ through the Handful Of Dust label, their second album in two years, following 2019’s ‘Workin’ All Night Workin’ All Day’.

‘Between My Brother & Me’ opens up in big drum rhythmic style, pulsing through the heart of the song, leading us to ‘I Won’t Be There’, falling into kind of Peter Gabriel territory. Next up is ‘Second Sight’, which goes more down-tempo with a dreamy texture, followed by ‘All These Years’, with its chorus effect guitar opening up to a more AOR leaning.

’A Lifetime Too Late’ returns to a more keyboard dominated mid-tempo track, then onto ‘In The Shadow Of The Clan’, which reaches out for a piece of yearning euphoria. Similarly, the next song ‘Say A Prayer’ is backed with some classy female backing vocals from Avril Davis, Tracy Tucker and Sharron Wallace, before the catchy ‘Liberated’, closes the album with track number eight.

I mentioned Peter Gabriel earlier and he is an obvious influence, but you will find a variety of other influencers ranging from Pink Floyd right through to Aussie singer John Farnham that rightly cements The Petal Falls in the aforementioned genre.

Geoff C.