Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Old Habits don’t just die hard, they are the building blocks to the emotions we feel, to what we experience later, and the hope that somewhere the new customs we forge and the behaviours that took us unblinkingly to the moment of inspiration merge and create additional, original thinking.
We cannot dismiss the habits of our youth, whether they were ill-intentioned or pieces of the puzzle that is by definition us; they are there in our past like marionettes, the strings being pulled by our own external force, waiting to dance to a novel and flavoursome tune.
As Treetop Flyers note in their latest recording, those figures are the results of all that we have kept close by, the mementos, the scribbled joined up writing, the beliefs, and the tradition, nothing really escapes the past, and Old Habits is an album of comfort as it appraises this custom of thankless memory, but also one that strides out, mindful of its past, but unaffected by its presence; and if truth be told, is happy to allow the two states of minds to co-exist, a twin dilemma of practice given the necessary train of thought to become a different and innovate perspective.
Old habits may be comforting, however in a world of Progressive endeavour, to see and hear a band embrace a new understanding, to be willing to flex their muscles and blow the dust of the deeply rooted off their shoulders, that is true artistry, for nothing comes in the end of relaxing into the cradle of the stale and canvas moth eaten.
As Reid Morrison, Laurie Sherman, Sam Beer, Rupert Shreeve, Ned Crowther, and Geoffrey Widdowson all converge to subtly re-immerse their sound in the gymnasium of open-minded advancement, tracks such as the exceptional Dancing Figurines, Castlewood Road, Cool Your Jets, Night Choir, and Out Of The Blue show with ease and passion the clarity of their thinking, of how to advance in your artistry without betraying the essence of what brought you to the crossroads in the first place.
A wonderful album filled with sincerity, enjoyment, superb arrangement, and inclination; Treetop Flyers have shown that the only habits we should allow to master us are those with great expectations and which make us react with equal greatness.
Treetop Flyers release Old Habits on December 3rd.
Ian D. Hall