Distressingly, it’s now been 14
years since Pure Reason Revolution released their debut album,
the modern prog masterpiece The Dark Third. It’s an
album I’ve counted as one of my very favourites ever since. But the two records
that followed it were poor, and it’s now a decade since even the latter of
those was released. On reuniting, Pure Reason Revolution made
lots of the right noises about aiming for the sound and approach of The
Dark Third with this comeback record. And while Eupnea isn’t on
the same level as that (which would have been a big ask) – it
is, by a distance, the closest they’ve come since. It starts dreamy, with ‘New Obsession’
initially soothing you toward the driving bassline that dominates its second
half. The melancholic duet of ‘Maelstrom’ is just lovely, even in its heavier
parts, while ‘Ghosts & Typhoons’ delivers the biggest punch of the record
with some chunky on/off riffing. When it was announced I was both excited and
apprehensive about Eupnea: turns out it was as good as could reasonably
have been hoped for. It’s great to have them back and truly delivering again. [fun
fact: at some point in the last 10 years Jon Courtney started to look quite a
lot like a turtle.]