Review Summary: While The Optimist is a pleasant record on its own, one can't get rid of a feeling that the band is running out of ideas.
Anathema and their bizarre evolution of sound have been discussed countless times. Like many bands that started as death-doom acts in the early 90's, they slowly abandoned these elements in favour of alternative/gothic rock sound (see also The Gathering, Tiamat, Katatonia, Sentenced or mid era Paradise Lost). And surprisingly, despite what some staunch fans say, that change has been for the better. While pertaining some doom elements, they have eventually developed a unique style of alternative rock with progressive tendencies that some started referring to as "atmospheric rock".
So now in 2017 the band finds themselves making a successor to A Fine Day to Exit, an album that was solid on its own, but it felt like a transitional album between their alternative and progressive sound. There are various references to that album here, such as the fact both albums feature a car on the cover and that the coordinates on the first track's title give location of a place where the cover for previous album was taken.
The first officially released single "Springfield" definitely set expectations high with its fairly sparse female vocals and its post-rock structure not too dissimilar to that of Mogwwai. However, the rest of the album does not even come close to the grandiouseness of this track.
There is one aspect that Anathema have kept from their previous record and it's the electronic elements. Such as on the first proper track, fast paced "Leaving It Behind", the epic "Endless Ways" featuring Lee Douglas on vocals and "San Francisco", which is just an instrumental version of intro of "Endless Ways" and feels like a filler track. Lee Douglas also sings on "Ghosts", a great track with a strong trip hop groove and the jazzy "Close Your Eyes". "Can't Let Go" and "Wildfires" are fairly standard tracks by Anathema standards that feel like overlong intros rather than proper songs.
The title track with a satisfying post-rock like build up is definitely the highlight here. Actually, when thinking about it, lot of tracks here resemble second/third wave post-rock rather than classic Anathema with their structure. And while crescendos sound nice, when they are overdone they start to sound boring.
The album definitely feels front loaded as well, there are barely any memorable moments in the second half until the long final track saves the album. When looking at track length at first, one might think that Anathema are going to make a huge 12 minute track, but like its spiritual predecessor, the track itself is only around 7 minutes long and after few minutes of silence it ends with a short goofy acoustic track. Also, both tracks start with sounds of ocean waves. It's still a satisfying closer, but seriously, hidden tracks are pointless 90% of the time and they rarely serve any purpose.
Another flaw here is a lack of truly outstanding moments, all tracks are fairly standard length, which is a bit unusual after their previous 3 records which had at least one very long track. The lyrics are somewhat cheesy as expected of modern Anathema, dealing with themes of loss, hope, love or regret.
So ultimately, while The Optimist is an enjoyable listen, it leaves something to be desired. It is much less progressive and predictable album, therefore it's fairly ironic this was the album that won this year's progressive music awards.
Most alternative rock bands today would kill to release an album of this quality, but Anathema can still do better.
