Memories In My Head

Riverside's Memories in My Head is a three-song EP running 32 and a half minutes, and, that's right, that means each track is around ten or 11 minutes long. In practice, they segue into each other, however, making for a single lengthy suite. As the overall disc title and the individual song titles -- "Goodbye Sweet Innocence," "Living in the Past," and "Forgotten Land" -- suggest, the theme has to do with recollections and regrets about a time period that has disappeared. "What happened to our days," wonders singer Mariusz Duda in "Living in the Past," "They used to be so full of life." The stretched-out tracks contain simple, repetitive patterns, inclining toward a reflective tone. This is a band that easily could have been a Pink Floyd tribute group, and there are frequent specific references to albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Like David Gilmour, Duda sings in a calm, quiet tone, again befitting the wistfulness of the message. While fans might have wished for a full-length Riverside album, this shorter work has a consistency it might be difficult to maintain over greater length. ~ William Ruhlmann|