Band:	Blackfield
Album:	Blackfield IV
Style:	Pop rock, Progressive rock
Release date:	August 26, 2013
Guest review by:	andreosokin

01. Pills
02. Springtime
03. X-Ray [feat. Vincent Cavanagh]
04. Sense Of Insanity
05. Firefly [feat. Brett Anderson]
06. The Only Fool Is Me [feat. Jonathan Donahue]
07. Jupiter
08. Kissed By The Devil
09. Lost Souls
10. Faking
11. After The Rain

Rumors on Blackfield IV had been going around since January 2012, when Aviv Geffen promised to release the album in May that year, but eventually released it more than a year later. I'm pretty sure it was caused by the uncertainty with Steven Wilson's further participation with the project, who had been the second most important figure in Blackfield since its inception. Even though he did not write a lot of the songs, it felt like he really improved the arrangement of the ones written by Aviv. I wouldn't say that this record has some poor songwriting, it's just of much lower quality than it was before, and Wilson's influence can no longer be heard; the album was all written and produced by Geffen, who also recorded a bigger portion of instruments and vocals this time, although I don't enjoy his singing.

Blackfield IV also features many prominent guest vocalists: Vincent Cavanagh, Jonathan Donahue and Brett Anderson. I must say, the latter's performance sounded completely odd on this record, and even Aviv Geffen's voice would fit much better on the song "Firefly", which is the worst part of the album, in my opinion. At the same time, Cavanagh delivered his parts very emotionally and nicely which makes you play the song "X-Ray" over and over again, and same applies to Donahue, whose voice perfectly blended with the music of the beautiful, but rather short song called "The Only Fool Is Me". Oh, and there's this song, "After The Rain", which is a nice background tune musically, but lyrically, it looks like it was written by a kindergarten attendee. A strange choice for an album finisher.

In terms of production, this album sounds very well. The presence of a live string orchestra and the string arrangements in general added much to the sound, and subsequently, to my overall rating. And of course, I can't forget to mention that Steven Wilson has yet again done a great job in the "mixing department".

Overall, this is good album, though you will most likely play some separate tracks after the first few listens, rather than listening to it in its entirety from start to end. At least that's how it appeals to me.