In the 1980s, in Kansas and Missouri, four kids came of age individually holding tightly to a purely shared rock music dream. This desire to play rock and roll collectively unified them into the powerhouse that is known as a picture made. They worked tirelessly to realize their dream and, after a short time, they started to generate an unavoidable buzz around the midwest. Their rise to success was swift and evident, as they were tapped to support The Replacements, The Call, and The Connells on the road. While touring with different bands only helped to fuel their fire, their hunger to write and record music was insatiable.

Nearly 35 years down the line, A Picture Made is finally ready to deliver the uncompromising, unwavering vision for the thematic album that has become Heal. This album enriches the scene with poetic, allegorical lyrics ably set in bold, well-crafted tones. Signature tracks “Quitting Now Would Be Treason” and “A Signal Hovering Over America” create a lyrical whirlwind over a vivid, colorful landscape of instrumental dynamics, while “Come To Me” and “Behind Your Eyes” offer a bittersweet and unique, yet familiar take on love.

Good luck trying to ignore tracks like “God Loves A Hell Of A Man” and “Baby Boom Boom,” as they are the exuberant no-frills rock and roll juggernauts of the album. Lastly, “Music is Love” is a stunning summation of the album’s healing message, placed strongly before the final of the three Heal songs – “Heal Me,” “Heal You,” and “Healed.” This trinity of Heal songs serves as milestone tracks to mark the path of the listener’s journey. APM believes Heal is their finest work to date, with sights set for much more ahead.

01. Heal Me

02. Quitting Now Would Be Treason

03. Boxes On The Floor

04. A Signal Hovering Over America

05. Come To Me

06. Locomo Mexico

07. Heal You

08. Baby Boom Boom

09. Behind Your Eyes

10. When You Get Down

11. God Loves A Hell Of A Man

12. Music Is Love

13. Healed

The Crack And What It Meant is the new 30-track album from Cardiff’s Quiet Marauder. 30 songs is brief compared to their debut MEN which had 111 songs on it.  Billed as an  'anti- War of the Worlds' album, it shares a lot with Jeff Wayne’s '70s concept album.  Lo-fi folk and indie tunes tell the story of a mysterious crack in spacetime that appears in Kent and the reaction of local and the mass media.  

The music wavers from twee parody to grandiose arrangements of great seriousness and ambition and the lyrics follow suit.  It’s a creative and unique approach and Quiet Marauder make it work.  The songs are interspersed with Richard Burton-esque expository narration from The Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom.  His North American voice adds credence and gravitas to the unfolding tale.  From Costa Coffee opening a branch at the Crack and musings on the plot of Lost to Rothschilds and Trump capitalising on the public panic, the story mixes social commentary and sci-fi philosophising with pop culture references and punk pathetique observations.

The album is punctuated by reports from fictional TV news reporter Morson Welles, and the perspectives of eyewitnesses, viewers and pop culture personalities are all heard amid the ominous tones of Kom.  One ponders how “This would make a great episode of Doctor Who” while another encourages the discoverer of the crack to sell his story to BBC news.

For a work of such lofty aspiration The Crack And What It Meant is light, breezy, and charming.  While singles like ‘The Discovery’ and ‘What Happened To Science?’ function perfectly well in isolation, most of this LP wouldn’t work in a shuffled playlist.  At a time when the very existence of the music album is being called into question by both major label bands and underground acts, it’s encouraging to hear something that demands to be played through in order.

You can pre-order The Crack And What It Meant here