Sol Invictus - In the Rain (1995)

A friend was asking me about neo folk recently and since there's not much of it on this blog yet I figured it was time to change that. So the next couple of reviews are for you, Kristel.

Sol Invictus (Latin for 'Unconquered Sun')is the long running neo folk/neo classic group of British musician/composer Tony Wakeford. Back in the late 80's after leaving Death in June, Tony formed Sol Invictus in '87 with Ian Read and Karl Blake, but by the early 90's Read distanced himself from Tony and since then Sol Invictus has been more or less the solo project of Tony with various enlisted talents on each release.

For all intents and purposes, 'In the Rain' is the best Sol Invictus album, and not only that one of the best albums I’ve personally ever heard. Tony Wakeford’s voice and guitar playing is accompanied by Sarah Bradshaw on cello, David Mellor on piano & keyboards, Karl Blake on electric guitar and bass, Nathalie Van Keymeulen and Céline Marleix-Bardeau on violins, Eric Rogers on trumpet and Nick Hall on drums and percussion.

In the Rain was the first Sol Invictus album with a mini orchestra, while the more simplistic neo folk sound of previous albums was left behind at this point in Sol Invictus' history. In fact the classical instruments make it almost a full on orchestrated album since both the acoustic and distorted electric guitars are used more sparingly. These instruments at times provide a very beautiful tranquil feeling, whereas at other times can be quite sad and at other times present an extremely chilling feeling.

Another appealing characteristic about this album is the lyrics, which are easily the best Wakeford has ever written. The lyrics seem to mostly deal with love or rather the lack of it and all other things negatively relating to it. My favorite track from this album is, ‘Believe me,’ which has got to be one of the most haunting and depressing songs I’ve ever heard. The lyrics are extremely touching and very disheartening and when combined with this haunting orchestral music and Wakeford’s morose vocals the results are simply extraordinary. Similarly ‘In the Rain’ is about a double betrayal in a relationship, ‘Fall like rain’ deals with humanity, ‘Oh what Fun’ with suicide and ‘An English Garden’ is a bit hard to grasp but still it’s a brilliant song. As a whole all eleven songs on this album are perfect from start to finish, and it's one of those albums that’s so dark, frightening, and sad, that it’s almost impossible to find the correct words to describe it.

‘In the Rain’ truly reflects what a genius Tony Wakeford is for songwriting and composing music. ‘In the Rain’ is easily the best neo folk album I’ve heard to date, and as I said in the beginning of this review one of the best albums ever composed. Consider experiencing it with a glass of red wine, on dark rainy night, while in a melancholy mood.