Name: Anathema: The Optimist
Release year: 2016
Genre: Rock, Prog Rock
Artist: Daniel Cavanagh - guitars, vocals, keyboards, bass; Vincent Cavanagh - vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming, bass; Jamie Cavanagh - bass; John Douglas - drums, keyboards, programming; Lee Douglas - vocals; Daniel Cardoso - drums

Description:

After Anathema's 2012 award-winning album Weather Systems and 2014's spellbinding Distant Satellites, the ambient rockers are back with their eleventh full-length, The Optimist. Out now on Kscope, The Optimist Reveals some of the darkest, most challenging and undisclosed music the sextet have put their name to.

Anathema, led by brothers Daniel and Vincent Cavanagh, along with drummer John Douglas, singer Lee Douglas, bassist Jamie Cavanagh and drummer / keyboardist Daniel Cardoso began recording The Optimist in the winter of 2016 at Attica Audio in Donegal, Ireland and then finished at Castle Of Doom studios in Glasgow with producer Tony Doogan [Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Super Furry Animals] at the helm. Vincent elaborates on Doogan's influence on the recording process, he promised that we were not done for years. Having played a few tunes on the last tour, we were ready for that. Tony wanted to capture that energy you can only get with each facing each other ... it makes a big difference. He was a superb guy to work with and I learned a lot of this record "

The idea for The Optimist was born from the front cover artwork of the band's 2001 album A Fine Day To Exit Daniel Cavanagh explains "I suppose you might say the album is semi-autobiographical because this time we used a surrogate," he says, of The character that is the optimist "We put sound, feelings and crucially, our own hopes and fears into another person and made him the subject of the songs. It was John's idea to write a narrative, so I took A Fine Day to Exit as the starting point. " Vincent elaborates further on the first album of artwork influence "The guy who disappeared - you never knew what happened to him, did he start a new life? Did he succumb to his fate? It was never explained. The opening day is the exact coordinates for the Silver Strand beach in San Diego - the last known location of The Optimist - shown on the cover of A Fine Day to Exit.

To continue the theme further, the band brought back the designer and illustrator Travis Smith to create the artwork for The Optimist. The artwork was taken from a West Coast road trip.

With the character's unresolved destiny, the three song writing members, meticulously brought the unfinished story to the end.

Tracklist:
01. 32.63n 117.14w (01:18)
02. Leaving It Behind (04:27)
03. Endless Ways (05:49)
04. The Optimist (05:37)
05. San Francisco (04:59)
06. Springfield (05:49)
07. Ghosts (04:17)
08. Can not Let Go (05:00)
09. Close Your Eyes (03:39)
10. Wildfires (05:40)
11. Back To The Start (11:41)

Issued: United States | Kscope
Duration: 00:58:24