Album Review: John Nolan – Abendigo

Abendigo is the third solo release from Taking Back Sunday guitarist John Nolan, for fans expecting a straight forward return to Taking Back Sunday‘s signature style will be in for a surprise as John Nolan seems to have taken a conscious decision to take a different approach, not just to the outfit he is best known as part of but also to his two previous solo offerings, as he employs and blends his established style with elements of electronic and ambient music, the result is a more experimental and abstract album than you might have expected.

Do You Remember?, opens Abendigo with a darl and sinister track that eases into the Over Before It Begins, a track that has waves of atmospheric synth washing over it. Half A Block To Go abruptly shifts the album into a different gear and you start to get the impression that John Nolan is trying to cram everything that has influenced him into just eight tracks, something that is confirmed by the haunting Smiling And Alive. Outside Of The Tragedy and How Much Difference Does It Make? continues the album’s descent in melancholia, this is halted by Anything You Want, the album’s finest, shortest and fastest track, before the album’s finale, With You/Nothing Is Over, gently eases you out of Abendigo.

To say the influences and styles on Abendigo are sprawling is something of an understatement, there is something for fans of everyone from Nine Inch Nails and Arcade Fire through to Elbow and The Gaslight Anthem, and of course Taking Back Sunday. Abendigo maintains an atmospheric quality throughout the album, the fact that John Nolan‘s latest release comes across as a sampler rather than a coherent album is where it falls down, for all but the most dedicated fans this will be a hit and miss affair, but it must be said that the hits that are present make Abendigo well worth investigating.

You can purchase Abendigo here and stream the album via Spotify here