Burdened Hands by Eyestrings

With songs varying widely in mood, sound, theme, arrangement, and duration, but still quite cohesive as an album, "Burdened Hands" offers plenty to be appreciated by music lovers. The songs are often complex in form but also ripe with memorable melodies--as is common with progressive music, some take several listens to sink in--and lyrics that can be poetically subtle ("Recovery"), cleverly silly ("Just a Body"), or wickedly blunt ("Time Will Tell"). Eyestrings takes the listener on a journey that is often challenging, and always rewarding.

Highlights from published reviews of "Burdened Hands":

15.5 out of 16 stars:

"The almost chaotically exuberant energy that goes into these three- to 12-minute compositions ... make for a recording as successful as the Flower Kings at their best. There's the elusive yet infectious refrain and great instrumental break of the four-minute 'Itchy Tickler,' the tasty incorporation of vintage mellotron in such pieces as 'Dead Supermen,' and the stirringly resolving climax full of grandeur of the epic closer, 'Empty Box.' The latter includes the sort of sinuous electric guitar work by Alan Rutter that sealed the deal for Discipline's 'Into the Dream.' "

- David Taylor, Progression Magazine

http://www.progressionmagazine.com

6 out of 6 stars:

"The band amazingly easily and masterfully works with sinuous, constantly twisting instrumental arrangements, including those going along with vocals, and they are almost throughout here... Surely, my CD player will often be burdened with 'Burdened Hands'. Highly recommended."

- Vitaly Menshikov, Progressor

http://www.progressor.net

"Yes, Eyestrings is influenced by, akin to even, Discipline. Having said that, the band is its own original. I find myself getting lost in the music regularly (which doesn't happen all that often to us cynical reviewers). Next to the Discipline there is the tongue in cheekness of the Crack The Sky's or Ben Folds's of this world, and all other things making this a varied album that is fresh and original."

-Roberto Lambooy, Axiom of Choice

http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/jur/progrock.html

"Burdened Hands is a very easy album to get into with strong songs and melodies, often-humorous lyrics and faultless instrumentals.  With so many influences at their disposal, it will be interesting to see on future albums if Eyestrings maintain the same diverse but coherent styles or thin them down a little.  I'll wager that their sound will develop mainly from that found in Recovery and Empty Box though I hope they will always try and include something of the contrasts found on Burdened Hands, which as I have implied is instantly likeable."

- Jem Jedrzejewski, The Hairless Heart Herald

http://www.camelesk.demon.co.uk/hairless-heart-herald.htm

"All the tracks on the album are quite good, the highlights for me being the two longer pieces (Recovery - Empty Box) and also the instrumental second part of Slackjaw (with it's waves of Melloton and keyboard/guitar soloing) is just phenomenal. In conclusion, with Burdened Hands what you get is an excellent American style Prog Rock album. Fans of Spocks Beard should do themselves a favor and check these guys out ... Very cool stuff indeed from a more than promising newcomer."

- Marc Roy, ProGGnosis

http://www.proggnosis.com

"At first, this disc seems to have no cohesion so much tracks have very different styles some of the others, but at the end of several listening, we notice that it is exactly this variety which makes it his its cohesion. Certain passages can remind the SPOCK'S BEARD sound, but EYESTRINGS evolves all the same in a different register. We shall note magnificent 'Empty Box', long composition of 12 '37, who encloses marvelously this cd."

- SomthingProg

http://www.somethingprog.com

"[T]he overall craftsmanship is very strong and the music, unswervingly confident, always returns to itself. And don't worry - it's not a concept album. You don't have to like Prog to like this one. You just have to like music."

- Jay Forman, Splendid Ezine

http://www.splendidezine.com

Average Customer Review: