Overhead: “Telepathic Minds” (2023) – Album Review

Summary

Accentuated by the timeliness of its subject matter and immersive themes of war, conflict, loneliness, despair, and the destructive obfuscation of reality, Telepathic Minds is a deeply compelling (yet buttkickingly rockin) prog epic.

Album Info

Introduction

Telepathic Minds, the fifth studio album from Finnish outfit Overhead, has recently taken over quite a slice of the progressive rock ecosystem. A lot of buzz, quite a bit of talk, and a host of rave reviews. I mean, I understand that as of this writing, we’re barely out of the first quarter of 2023, but Telepathic Minds has been on the receiving end of a lot of good write-ups, vlogs, and reviews.

This naturally piqued my interest, because (1) I’m not one to ignore the fans’ enthusiasm, and (2) I checked out the advance video for the album track “War To End All Wars” and it was damn cool. Cool enough for me to pre-order the CD on Bandcamp.

Apropos of everything, I knew very little about Overhead. Thankfully, this wacky, wild thing we call The Internet facilitated knowledge-gathering at an exponential rate. The Profil Video Interview with Overhead – February 2023 – Telepathic Minds – Alex Keskitalo from Fred Simoneau especially helped things along.

Essentially, Overhead’s sound draws from a variety of influences like Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, and even 60s psychedelic rock act Love. The addition of a new keyboard and bass player helped evolve the band’s sound, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those years served as inspiration for many acts, and Overhead was no exception. The creation of Telepathic Minds rooted itself around isolation, fears of emerging war (well-founded), trepidation about burgeoning Artificial Intelligence, the chaos of the Trump presidency, man’s cyclical destructive nature, and the legitimization of Post-Truth as ideology.

Heady stuff, indeed. Enough to fill a double-album with songs reflecting these very real, very tangible themes that have predominantly driven culture and society for the better part of a decade. And man on man, do I love me a good double-album. Songs In The Key Of Life, Something/Anything, Sign O’ The Times, Exile on Main St., the freakin White Album (yes yes, “The Beatles”, I got ya fam), there are few things as rewarding as when a talented artist takes their vision and develops and indulges it well past the 45-60 minute cosmic barrier.

With Telepathic Minds, Overhead developed themes detailing 21st Century Post-Truth neuroses into a 90 minute Lagrange Point where hard rock and prog converge, released to notable fanfare in March of 2023. But does it live up to the hype? Read on…

Review

Disc One

“War To End All Wars” opens the album rather deliberately, with a slower, contemplative pace rather than some volcanic barnstormer. Let’s look at/listen to an abridged version of the song, shall we?

Almost a declaration of principles of sorts, the track more-or-less sets the tone for what is to come over the next 90 minutes. At almost nine minutes in length, this opener touches upon the impermanence of existence, the transitory nature of life, the cyclical nature of humanity and our capacity for destruction.

We make ruptures in the fabric of time and space
But we’ll never change the human race

The pace picks up mid-song, with some strong hard rock elements amid the atmospheric keys and flute flourishes, returning to its original pacing by end song. Transitioning into “Ghosts From The Future”, the album surrounds us in a dreamlike synth soundscape before bass and drums kick in with a percussive, haunting groove. Broken into two sections (“Endless Sleep” and “Last Chance To Bail”), the song’s tone feels similar to the previous track, and I’d be remiss to not mention that concerns about tonal homogeneity came to the forefront.

The track is quality, no doubt; the lyrics evoke spiritual thirst, existential ruminations, and whether the search for knowledge is worth all the mishegas of life in the first place. The band sounds expressive and aligned, with a simply killer keyboard solo from Jere Saarainen and a tasty Arabian-themed acoustic guitar solo from Jaakko Kettunen. But given its length and similarity to its predecessor, I wonder if it would have been better sequenced elsewhere.

Not that I’m going to complain all that much; both tracks are money.

“Sail Across The Universe” continues delving into themes of destruction, existentialism, hope, despair, redemption… your garden-variety endless conflict between determinism and fatalism. A reductive analysis, I know. Hints of some kind of intergalactic conflict present themselves as well, as humanity continues its barbarism across the wide swath of the cosmos. The song acquits itself nicely with bluesy hard-rock riffs, distorted guitars, pounding drums, and atmospheric keyboards. My fears about tonal homogeneity have been quelled; it does not by any means feel out of place, but it adds more color to the tapestry. Alex Keskitalo also delivers a strong vocal performance, elevating this track further.

“The Pilot’s Not Fit To Fly” clearly excoriates the failures, incompetence, and ineptitude of world leaders, especially in times of world chaos and panic. It’s hard enough finding faith and truth on any given reasonable day, but it’s during the tough times when we need leadership the most. Yet if the pilot is dead-drunk at the helm, we’re not taking off. And if we’ve already taken off, landing ain’t gonna be fun.

Considering the pilot’s not fit to fly
So if this isn’t panic time
I just don’t know what is any more

All that said, the opening drum beat reminds me of Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom”, and that is by no means a slight. The song rocks a slinky, soulful vibe, almost a bit of 80s Yacht Rock. The choruses bring out more of the harder rock elements, with crunchy guitars and anthemic vocals. While I love this track, it probably goes on a bit long with the ending guitar solo and reprise of the chorus. But the song still cooks.

At 5:49, “Sleep Tight Sweetheart” is one of the shortest tracks on the album and serves as the closing track for the first disc. That is, if you still listen to physical media. Kettunen provides a very Gilmour-esque solo that works brilliantly alongside the percussive assault from Janne Katalkin on bass and Ville Sjöblom and drums. A tight, solid closer.

Disc Two

As such, we arrive at Disc 2, Track 1 — the 17 minute album title track, “Telepathic Minds”. Comprised of five sections, “i) Hypnotized” opens with Keskitalo’s mournful vocals over Kettunen’s acoustic guitar (reminiscent of late mid/late 70s Tony Iommi). “ii) Random Honesty” cranks up the tempo a bit with rising immediacy, very 80s sounding guitar on the solo, and rousing anthemic vocals (as well as a slower, softer midsection).

“iii) Telepathic Minds” gives us a heavy dose of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, thundering riffage alongside effervescent flute lines and pervasive keyboard atmospherics. I enjoyed these lines quite a bit, in which the narrator implores telepathic minds around him (or in the future) to help him avoid the darkest timeline.

Pretending to understand
Not this time I read between the lines
I see the future, I see us steadily decline
Leave everything behind
I’m certain we’ll be fine
Couldn’t be better defined: if(anything){we=”telepathic minds”;}

(Get 30% unit testing on that code there…)

“iv) Back In Time” allows us to catch our breath after the sonic assault of part iii. A slower, bluesier segment, this more straightforward piece relishes its nostalgia, a return to a “better” time of warmth, companionship, and hearth and home.

Finally, “v) Reprise: Home Again” literally takes us backwards in time. It starts with the Ritchie Blackmore riff from “iii) Telepathic Minds”, repeats the chorus from that segment, and then repeats the chorus from “ii) Random Honesty” as the track ends.

What’s fascinating here is that there is not a single song, nor even a song segment, entitled ‘Home Again’ to reprise in the first place. Yet the phrase “home again” is repeated twice in the “i) Endless Sleep” section of “Ghosts From The Future”. It makes itself present in the opening lines of “Sleep Tight Sweetheart”. And finally, we hear it twice in the “ii) Random Honesty” segment of “Telepathic Minds”.

I think we might be on to something kids!

Anyway, “Telepathic Minds” retains the title as the album’s centerpiece, and perhaps its standout track. The prog dork in me does tend to gravitate towards the epic-length tracks (but I’ll call out a song that goes on for too long, which I did a few thousand paragraphs ago). However, “Telepathic Minds” remains entirely satisfying in terms of its composition, lyrical content, and melodic construction for the entirety of its 17 minute runtime.

Phew! Let’s take a quick break, and then move on to “Tuesday That Never Came”. At 4:03, this one takes the title for shortest track on the record. Let’s take a look/listen, shall we?

“Tuesday That Never Came” feels like the closest thing this album has to a traditional single: short, melodic, and immediate. It delves deep into the anxieties of processing too much information (aka Paralysis by Analysis). Who hasn’t wanted to turn off their brain for a bit and reboot later, hoping we’ll process reality more effectively? “Tuesday That Never Came” excels in its role as an album single, presenting many of the albums central themes in a short but engaging track.

Heading into the final three, the album veers back towards the expected longer numbers. We start with “Planet of Disorder”, in which, quite frankly, I’m going to have to cop to the Tull comparison with the flute opening. That could be the laziest tool in any discussion of a prog band that utilizes any flute whatsoever. But there it is. The established themes of disillusionment and blurred reality are well in play here, but this time looking inward; specifically whether or not we are actual sentient beings or pre-programmed sacks of energy going through the motions. AIs/bots, if you will, of the organic kind. The repeated motifs of rebooting and yearning for home make themselves known again.

I have to call out when the penultimate song of a double-album runs over almost eight minutes in length and finishes with the line “We’re ever closer to the end”, so hats off to you “Sheep Stay Silent”. The Kashmir-esque riff that drives the opening and verses is a bit derivative but undeniably catchy. Even the midsection evokes classic Genesis of the Gabriel/Hackett era.

The album closes with some very Kansas-like vocalizations as “Almost Always Near The End” closes the record. Nice callback to the end of the previous tune! Immediately we’re told to “take a bow, we made it home again”. The home imagery comes full circle. Here a message of hope reassures us, but delivers a stern warning to only trust what we really see. Fear and hysteria always surround us, but they shouldn’t drive our perception. That takes a bit of a balancing act when we’re always fed apocalyptic scenarios to keep the populace fearful and in line. Or, as put by the band:

I feel just fine, sleepwalking on the line
Near the end of all, and we’re almost always near the end
All the time

“Almost Always Near The End” ends the album heroically, with strong melodies and fine musicianship from the band. If anything, I wish the song was longer. That jam near the outro was so intoxicating, I was bummed when it ended. But then, everything ends.

And in closing (near the end)…

Phew! But what a record. Double albums, by their very nature, challenge your patience. And patience, by its very nature, should always be challenged. There’s nothing more toxic than a Comfort Zone. Anyhow, Telepathic Minds isn’t a challenging album in the sense that the songwriting, musicianship, and presentation are intentionally oblique, self-indulgent, or meandering to the point of pretension and frustration. Instead, it combines the emotionally resonant poeticism of its lyrics with musical immediacy and accessibility, blending progressive intricacies and hard rock melodies into an appealing and satisfying vision. Augmented by the timeliness of its subject matter and immersive themes of war, conflict, loneliness, despair, and the destructive obfuscation of reality, Telepathic Minds is a deeply compelling (yet buttkicingly rockin) prog epic.

What similar albums does ChatGPT recommend?

While it behooves me to remind my readers that everything you just read is 100% Mills, let’s ask our friendly neighborhood AI for some similar album recommendations.

1. Riverside – “Second Life Syndrome” (2005)
This Polish progressive rock band’s album features a combination of melancholic atmospheres, heavy guitar riffs, and melodic passages. Fans of Overhead’s thematic depth and prog influences would enjoy this modern take on the genre.

2. The Pineapple Thief – “Your Wilderness” (2016)
This British progressive rock band crafts engaging melodies and intricate arrangements, blending rock, prog, and alternative elements. “Your Wilderness” deals with themes of isolation and introspection that align with those explored in “Telepathic Minds.”

3. Haken – “The Mountain” (2013)
Haken’s “The Mountain” showcases their unique blend of progressive rock and metal influences, featuring complex compositions and strong musicianship. Fans of Overhead’s mix of hard rock and prog elements might appreciate this album.

4. Gazpacho – “Night” (2007)
This Norwegian art-rock band’s album “Night” is a concept album that takes the listener on a journey through a single night, with atmospheric soundscapes and emotional storytelling. Fans of Overhead’s narrative style and thematic exploration would likely enjoy this album.

5. Beardfish – “Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two” (2008)
The Swedish progressive rock band Beardfish combines vintage prog sounds with modern influences, delivering a mix of catchy melodies and complex arrangements. Their album “Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two” showcases their versatility and would appeal to fans of Overhead’s “Telepathic Minds.”

Output from ChatGPT, OpenAI to Mills, 11April 2023.