Gabriels — Angels & Queens — Album Review
Alternative | Soul
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
This review I’m writing today is for an album that has a bit more of a unique situation than most others. Upon discovering said album through social media, I was definitely eager to give it a listen or two.
Upon looking into the album more, however, there is more to this album that I initially thought, in terms of where it sits in the discography of English-American three-piece band Gabriels.
Titled Angels & Queens, this album essentially acts as both a sequel and full version to the “Part 1” release back in 2022. Having listened to none of it last year, however, I felt it only fitting to give this album a shot in the here and now. Labelled as a deluxe version, 2023’s Angels & Queens includes tracks from Part 1 and entirely new ones, in an essentially “half and half” fashion.
So instead of being a “Part 2”, Angels & Queens ultimately acts as the final culmination of everything Gabriels have building up towards, thus also acting as their first true studio album. It’s a complicated process, I know. Nevertheless, it made Angels & Queens all the more intriguing.
But this was not truly the reason I wanted to give this album a spin, no. That reason, would obviously be the music itself, and more prominently, the styles of music that Gabriels have championed.
As I was watching the social media campaign promoting the release of this album, one remark especially caught my eye. It read as something along the lines of this album being “both familiar and entirely unique all at once”. And after listening to this album a few times, I completely agree that this album exudes that perfectly.
With the stylistic groundwork of soul to work from Gabriels embellish this with many other elements, that work to truly blur the line of what genre this album actually sits in. While I only really label it as soul as it seems to be the closest stylistic fit for this album, Angels & Queens it realistically its own thing stylistically.
As a result, many a track to come from this album brought forward unique and memorable qualities that contributed brilliantly to the albums overall impact. Said impact, as touched upon earlier, brings an almost nostalgic kind of atmosphere, whilst sounding not quite like anything I have heard before. And that in itself is a remarkable achievement.
Given the completeness of this project, Angels & Queens also stands as a very generous project too. With an overall runtime clocking in at over an hour and a half, and including a whopping total of 26 tracks (if one includes all tracks on disc 2), listeners can expect a completely full experience.
In conclusion, Angels & Queens has already left its mark as an impactful musical moment of 2023, and will most definitely be a project that I will not only keep revisiting, but will likely discover something new with each subsequent listen.
Favourite Tracks: Offering | Angels & Queens | Taboo | Remember Me | Glory
Least Favourite Track: Great Wind
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