It has been quite some time since I last came across Dutch outfit Nine Stones Close. They were originally a solo project by Adrian Jones (guitar, bass), who brought in other musicians to create a band in time for the second album, 2010’s ‘Traces’, and I reviewed both that and 2012’s ‘One Eye on the Sunrise’. Mind you, there has been a gap of eight years since their fourth album, and this time around we see a return for keyboard player Brendan Eyre (Riversea) who played on those two, plus vocalist Adrian “Aio” O’Shaughnessy (Psychic For Radio), Christiaan Bruin on keyboards (Sky Architect) and new rhythm section Joachim van Praagh (bass) and Lars Spijkervet (drums).
I was quite enamoured with the two previous albums I had come across, but there is something about this one which feels somewhat soulless and almost by numbers. It has little in the way of joyousness and warmth and consequently comes across as quite a cold release. This does not feel like a band, but much more like a project, and given the way they have come together that is arguably the case. It is difficult to pick fault with the musicians or vocals (which are quite stunning), but rather that the material itself is not as interesting or dynamic as one might expect, and the arrangements are rather one-dimensional. It is an album which the more I have played the less I have enjoyed it, which is the reverse to what normally happens, and if I had reviewed it after playing it just a few times I may well have been singing its praises which is what everyone else appears to be doing. I note they released another album very shortly after this one, so two in 2024 after a gap of eight years and it might have been better to have worked on quality control instead of quantity. 6/10
Kev Rowland
