As each member of this band is highly sought after in other projects—John Mitchell currently performing with Asia and Craig Blundell on tour drumming for Steve Hackett—Frost* has become a rare presence within the progressive rock scene. This marks their fifth release since their debut album nearly two decades ago. However, whenever they do make a comeback, new music from Frost is always something to celebrate. In fact, Life In The Wires represents perhaps their fastest turnaround yet, arriving just three years after 2021’s Day And Age.
The good news is Life In The Wires is a full-on concept double album, with 14 tracks, almost ninety minutes of music and no filler whatever, every track deserving of its place, with no punches pulled. As Jem Godfrey says “Every prog band worth its salt should do a double album. We’ve always had the idea of wanting to do one, so we got our heads down and went for it.”
The album continues where their previous album leaves off. The closing track on 2021 release Day And Age, ‘Repeat To Fade,’ ended with static noises and a voice asking, “Can you hear me?” and the opening track ‘Skywaving’ on the new album begins with the same static and question. Spoiler alert .. this album ends the same way. The concept involves someone named Naio heading for a meaningless future in an AI world, when he hears an old DJ on an ancient radio and decides to check this out, but the all-seeing eye doesn’t want him to have free thought, so while Day And Age sets up the world Naio lives in, LifeIn The Wires is his story.
This is largely Jem Godfrey’s album .. apart from two co-writes with John Mitchell, he wrote the entire album and also does the vocals. It’s a nod back towards their debut album Milliontown, which Godfrey wrote most of and sang. Whereas their last album was all about clever arrangements and tight performances, this new album sees the band really stretching out, with the welcome return of some truly fine extended soloing, particularly from Mitchell and Godfrey. The two title tracks, ‘Life In The Wires,’ parts 1 and 2, run to almost twenty minutes, with part 2 being almost a mini Milliontown, as it’s a 16-minute prog epic with stunning levels of musicianship from all the band, and lots of variety and flourishing instrumental passages, including great guitar from Mitchell. In fact, Mitchell’s playing right through this album, particularly on tracks like ‘Idiot Box’ and ‘This House Of Winter,’ is one of the outstanding features of the album, and he deserves far wider recognition for his playing. Shout out to rhythm section Nathan King and Craig Blundell who, despite contending with some fiendishly tricky time and key changes, laid down a solid platform for Godfrey and Mitchell to play across.
Life In The Wires is Frost* at their most ambitious best and on this album they’ve set the bar for others even higher as this album is an epic. It’s the sound of a band who really enjoy playing together. Will Frost* ever get the opportunity, given their schedules, to perform this album ‘live’ in its entirety? It’d be an amazing gig to behold were it ever to happen.
