Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 3
Meer - Wheels Within Wheels
There's two ways of describing Meer. The hard way is this.
Cinematic. Refreshing. Elegant. Intense. Exhilarating. Unique and still familiar. Highly cool.
They play the kind of baroque, cinematic rock music with a progressive edge that is instantly warm and likeable. Add it to a high standard of songwriting, songs that seem to get only more and more intense as the album progresses, and some of the best singing I've heard this year.
Another thing that makes them unique is that their singers are a dueling sister and brother combo, Johanne and Knut, who seem to have made a bet as to who gets to be the most impressive rock vocalist in Norway. Knut's melancholy wail is magnificent, but Johanne's raw power frequently steals the show.
Frequently the songs seem deceptively simple, with verses and hummable choruses, but the sonic palate is so layered, the instrumental sections so elaborate, the melody lines so beautiful, that it's an album you can keep listening to. It works on both the immediate level and the level of deep immersion that us progheads value most of all.
The easy way is this: It's really, really good music.
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