Above Cirrus
Phantoms puts an unusually large amount of Pure Reason Revolution into a short space. An electronic pulse, close vocal harmonies and a sudden increase in guitar force all have a clear role in its movement. Above Cirrus benefits from that confidence in making each change count.
The band's paired voices remain immediately recognisable. Jon Courtney and Chloë Alper can make the music sound peaceful while the instruments are preparing something more abrasive. That tension gives the album an unsettled character: comfort is available, but it rarely feels secure for long.
Our Prism establishes the harder edge with a directness that suits its brief duration. The heavier guitar sound has an impact beyond sheer volume because the vocal arrangements preserve their clarity inside it. New Kind of Evil takes more time to test the same relationship, moving from inviting harmonies toward a more turbulent instrumental response.
The songs are connected closely enough for the record to feel like a continuous environment, yet their individual identities remain useful. Cruel Deliverance offers room to recover after the shorter, more emphatic tracks. The calmer passages do more than make the next riff sound bigger; they give the album a different emotional temperature.
Scream Sideways is the most substantial journey. The arrangement moves through spacious guitar textures, heavier agitation and smaller changes in instrumental emphasis without losing its dramatic direction. Its size feels justified by the distance between those states. The band are particularly convincing when an apparently settled passage begins to reveal pressure underneath.
Dead Butterfly brings electronic movement back into clearer focus. Lucid then attempts a broad closing statement, with the final vocal arrangement giving the ending a satisfying sense of connection. Some of the busiest climaxes are less easy to enter than the quieter sections, because several expressive parts demand attention at once.
Above Cirrus gains much of its strength from its range of proportions. The short Phantoms is as carefully considered as the extended Scream Sideways, and both reach their strongest moments through an effective relationship between melody and disturbance. Pure Reason Revolution make an elaborate sound feel purposeful by ensuring that the voices still offer a clear emotional reason to follow it.
