Band:	Toby Driver
Album:	Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything
Style:	Experimental
Release date:	September 20, 2024
A review by:	RaduP

01. Ticking Timebomb
02. Someday There'll Be An Avalanche
03. Antinous In The Nile
04. Transdimensional Alluvium
05. Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything
06. Shankha
07. Talismans To Keep Me

What is it with prog guys and ravens? Can Toby Driver make the raven sing?

The last time we caught up with Toby Driver, Kayo Dot had released their latest album, Moss Grew On The Swords And Plowshares Alike, an album that proved that Toby's music continues to baffle us, as did the previous one. Though his more metal projects like Kayo Dot and its sort of predecessor Maudlin Of The Well are the ones that are most relevant for our website, Toby's contributions go beyond that quite a lot. Just this year he's also played on a Bloodmist and an Extra Life record, as well as putting out an album under the Alora Crucible name. That's music that spans genres like experimental rock, dark ambient, IDM, new age, among others.

The man's prolific nature out of the way, this isn't the first time I've covered the solo music he put out using his own name. When I got onboarded as a writer in late 2017, I was able to pull some of my favorite releases from earlier in the year for a review, I plucked Madonnawhore, and back then I used to give ratings, quite inflated ones if I'm honest, which might explain why I've stopped doing that, but the 9.0 I have that one is indicative of the fact that whatever that album did really really worked for me. I dropped rating by the time I reviewed its follow-up one year later, and They Are The Shield was a change of pace mostly because of the huge presence of violin. Now, six years later, there's a new solo Toby Driver record, once again aiming for a ballad-like album akin to the Madonnawhore one I liked so much. Logic would dictate that I would like Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything at least about as much.

My first listen was not as much baffling but somewhat impression-less. That can happen with listener fatigue, so I persevered, and now I think I can pinpoint two reasons why this didn't have as big of a positive impact. First: the magic can't work as well the second time around. By doing the sound of Madonnawhore, which itself was pretty close to other albums like Plastic House On Base Of Sky, meant diminishing returns unless something was fundamentally changed. Second, I hated the "to assume to assume" part in "Antinous In The Nile", something that broke the immersive magic that is needed for such a slow vibe-based album, and a track I'd gladly skip on each listen. There's also "Someday There'll Be An Avalanche" that sounds like a blend of the usual floating atmospheric rock and a proper 60s soft rock ballad, which sounds pretty good and offers some variety, but has a sense of cheesiness that doesn't exactly gel well with the rest of the record.

It's a bit of a shame that a record that's not even 40 minutes in runtime has nearly 10 minutes I feel like skipping, while the other 30 feel too close to an album I already like. But it's generally the latter that I felt drawn to most. My favorite tracks bookend the record, and Toby had the courtesy of putting the two skippable tracks consecutively, so it was possible for me to curate tracks from this record that would allow me to drown in the gorgeous soundscapes of the record, minimal as they are in progression and instrumental palette, and remind myself of why I liked Madonnawhore so much in the first place.