At some point in listening to Lost 3mbers, a sophomore full-length offering by Dutch art rock act My Arrival, the music stops being a mixture of a wide variety of different threads of progressive rock and becomes a thread of its own.
I suppose if you combined a number of threads of different colors, you might end up with a dull gray or brown rope, but luckily the metaphor doesn’t stretch that far, and My Arrival is a very colorful concoction.
The complexity of the arrangements makes sense to me, with the end result being greater than the sum of its many parts. It’s clear that My Arrival have borrowed their identity from a number of bands that imprinted themselves in the progressive dialogue decades before. Lost 3mbers is surprisingly easy to get into, and simultaneously came out of it with few distinct impressions other than: a) I enjoy it, and b) it hits every predicted note of what art rock should be without actually progressing an inch beyond what’s been done in the past. I may simply be cynical regarding the present state of the genre as a whole, but it does feel like My Arrival represents the most promising good and the restrictive limitations of contemporary take on the genre simultaneously. Lost 3mbers expresses a ton of skill and ambition without appearing to take much in the way of risks.
There is a ruthless simplicity on Lost 3mbers which underpins and helps to deliver the austerity of message, mood and music, aided by a mix which intentionally appears to take the edge off the top ranges and at times deliberately blurs some of the focus between individual instruments.
You can pre-order the album from Bandcamp. Follow My Arrival on Facebook.
There is a ruthless simplicity on "Lost 3mbers" which underpins and helps to deliver the austerity of message, mood and music.
