It’s easy to get caught up in hyperbole when addressing a new album from Caspian. The Beverly post-rock band is known for its sound of sweeping grandeur, the type of music that stands as more than just a collection of songs; they compose a journey, a sonic compass for the listener’s own ability to process emotion and intrigue. It’s always been unlike anything we’ve heard of out the Boston music scene over the last decade-plus, and now that road takes on another chapter.
Today (January 24), Caspian unleash their fifth studio album, titled On Circles and out via Triple Crown Records, and it serves as their first since 2015’s remarkable Dust and Disquiet. The record stands on the usual fertile ground that often allows Caspian’s sound to grow like vines around our many moods, and tracks like “Flowers of Light” and “Division Blues” show the band still has a knack for a transportive listening experience.
But what’s maybe most interesting is the source point for On Circles, and where the roots of the record were planted by the band. Co-founder and guitarist Philip Jamieson, who offers some rare vocals on the LP, steers clear of any over-dramatic notions behind the crafting of the new effort.
“I’ve grown weary of reading about bands discuss the renewing, rehabilitative properties their most recent [album] has had on them,” he says. “They incur corrosion, come close to running out of gas, descend into the dark abyss, and finally emerge on the other side with a record that has given them crystal clear perspective and a confident path forward. ‘On Circles’ is not that record.
Jamieson adds: “They’re just songs that we got together and wrote over the course of a year while trying to have a good time and reclaim whatever it is that’s simple about all of this. Don’t get me wrong, we kicked our own asses constantly and stayed up staring at the ceiling thinking about song structures all night for a year here… but being free from the yolk of having our music relentlessly try to answer the unanswerable was emancipating and humbling.”
What’s developed is another saga in Caspian’s dependable brand of cinematic grandeur. Where the listener takes these songs, it seems then, is up to him, her, or them.
Caspian, on the other hand, are taking these songs to some very specific places, namely a North American tour that kicks off later this month in Los Angeles. Along the way, they play Phoenix’s Rebel Lounge on January 31, and celebrate a two-night homecoming April 3 and 4 at The Sinclair in Cambridge. Check all the dates while digesting the album below.
