A Silver Mt. Zion - Kollaps Tradixionales [With CD] [With Book] [With Poster] [Deluxe Edition]

The sixth album from the many-monikered incarnations of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (with another slight name change) offers a renewed sense of purpose in the studio after personnel changes pared the group down to a quintet. Along with founding members guitarist/lead vocalist Efrim Menuck, violinist Sophie Trudeau, and contrabassist Thierry Amar, are Dave Payant on drums, organ, and piano, and violinist Jessica Moss. Longtime fans are in for a shock on "There Is a Light," the 15-minute opening track. Menuck's quavering vocals are looser, less concerned with pitch than ever before. It begins as a slow, mournful balladic waltz with electric guitar, and strings lilting underneath his voice. (For some reason, though we've heard it before, it takes some getting used to for a couple of minutes here.) It feels like a hymn, and his lyrics exhort even as they grieve; they're punctuated at the three-minute mark with horns; then, at four minutes, the tune begins its lift-off, becoming