Known for their genre-blurring tendencies and instrumental ambition, Grails have often walked the line between cinematic grandeur and psychedelic experimentation. But with Miracle Music, they stumble pretty hard. I really wanted to like this album, perhaps because I usually love Om—the other project of co-founder Emil Amos. But at nearly 45mins in length, Miracle Music feels less like a cohesive body of work and more like a patchwork quilt of half-baked ideas. We get some cool moments, most notably the horn work by Kelly Pratt, in songs like “Primeval Lite I-III,” but there is just not enough staying power with entire songs. They just kind of fades into obscurity. “Earthly Life” also feels quite aimless, lost in shiny cascading sytnhs, bird chirps, minimal string work, and searing saxophone. It all feels rather like background music, which maybe is the point?
The genre-hopping, once a strength, now comes off as directionless. One moment we’re in a haze of ambient drones, the next we’re yanked into fuzz-drenched prog-rock or sleazy lounge detours that feel more ornamental than essential.
Miracle Music is a hefty record so laden with stylistic detours and textural indulgences that it starts to collapse under its own weight. There’s an over-reliance on atmosphere and mood that rarely leads to any sort of payoff. Tracks bleed into each other, not in a seamless flow, but in a way that feels indistinct, like a jam session that never finds its shape. More frustratingly is the sense that Miracle Music mistakes quantity for quality. Rather than refining their sonic ideas, Grails seem content to throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks.
If this was a newer project with unknown members, I wouldn’t be so harsh, but Grails has been around for some time, so I expected greatness.
