Fall Into The Atmosphere Of Tall Ships' "Impressions"

The second album is always the hardest album for an artist. Tall Ships established their prowess on their debut, but you'll be falling into the atmosphere of their sophomore LP Impressions and its journey.

Impressions is an album about choices. It presents you on that scenario that has you wonder what the right path is to travel down on your journey through life. The slowburning starting track 'Road Not Taken' explores the path you don't take and all its possibilities. The song slowly becomes more and more energetic, becoming more graceful at the end as the full band kicks in, the lyrics reassuring that every decision you've made has built you own unique experience and life that makes its worth living. The possibilities may be daunting, but the ones you've made are yours to own.

A lot of Impressions tells the story of choices and decisions, but its the instrumentals that really tell the tales more clearly. It's almost hard to make out the words in each song as the vocals are mixed like an instrument. This comes as a double edged sword, as it gives more credit to every element of the songs but makes the meanings and bit less discernible. You do get all the flavors though, like the anthemic, upbeat sound of 'Home' and the more aggressive 'Meditations Of Loss'. You miss out on details, but you can get the gist still.

Impressions is an album with its ups and down. Tone wise it's pretty consistent and diverse throughout the runtime, but it does feel like in its atmosphere and mixing that some things are lost. The sophomore album is a hard follow up, though, and Tall Ships pulls it off pretty well. It's a solid album that could use more meat. It's a start on the right path..

Favorite Track: Road Not Taken

Least Favorite Track: Lost & Found

Rating: 71 / 100

Buy or listen to Impressions here: