Reviewed by: Eric Porter, August 2002 (Progressive World):
“The opportunity to see Echolyn live was one of the driving forces behind going to NEARfest 2002. Little did I know that the band would lay out 49 minutes of brand new music on the audience. A bold move indeed. I have to admit that it was exciting, though at times I found myself not paying close attention. The band warmed up the crowd with tracks from their previous releases, before unveiling their defining statement simply titled mei
I picked up the CD immediately after the band’s performance. They were all very upbeat guys (I am sure there was a rush from playing in front of 1,850 fanatics), friendly, and talked with everyone. Though I must say I did not absorb a lot of it from the live show, my five hour ride home on Monday provided me with some relaxing time to really dig into mei. And I have to say it is a very worthwhile record to get lost in. It has grown on me with each listen, and has been in my player since NEARfest. In typical Echolyn fashion, the musical complexity, vocal arrangements are all here, with keyboardist Chris Buzby writing the orchestral score that is interspersed throughout. The band also thunders on sections such as “Fade Away”, “Wishing You Away” among others. There is plenty of delightful hammond organ, and Kull’s tasty licks float effortlessly through the piece. The dynamic range hits both ends, with some very soft, subtle moments countered by some of the most aggressive music the band has recorded. I think this is a record that you have to judge for yourself, no review can really do it justice.
Mei seems very personal lyrically. I am sure everyone will have their own interpretation. I hear a lot of passion in the vocals. The band had to have spent plenty of painstaking sessions recording and arranging this. The website and booklet set it up as a Pilgrim’s journey across many junctions, which I guess we could all relate to our own life experiences. The lyrics are printed out on the site as well, so you can read for yourself. Lucky for me my ride to work is about the same amount of time it takes to get through the disc, so the band has painted many drives to and from work. Echolyn is a terrific band and I am thrilled to have been witness to a live performance of this record. One of my favorites of 2002, do not ignore this CD.”
Reviewd by Igor Italiani (Progressive World):
It was dangerous, very dangerous … to do a concept album based only on one long song is like a double-edged sword, as the thing can turn out brilliant (take for example Fates Warning’s A Pleasant Shade Of Gray) or inevitably dull. And it obviously requires some guts to make such a bold decision, but among the few prog bands that can take this bull by the horns there are Echolyn, that’s for sure! So now here we are with their newly released mei, which follows the welcomed return already made with Cowboy Poems Free two years ago. First of all, the album is delivered in a beautiful mini-LP package, but it’s really the music that elevates Echolyn once again above the majority of prog rock acts. In fact, every member of the band delivers an outstanding performance, somewhat close in style to the most-inspired works of Swedish phenomenon Flower Kings, even if I was particularly impressed by the sweet melodies and atmospheres drawn by the lush keyboards of Christopher Buzby and by the band’s vocal arrangements, always penned with deft precision.
Another big plus of the album is the superb sound quality, directly supervised by guitarist Brett Kull, who is responsible also for the artistic photo shots depicted on the CD’s booklet. So in the end mei is really a “must buy” record to add to your CD collection. You know, the only dreadful thing I discovered is that there is no additional subdivision of the one and only track (which lasts 49:33 to be precise), so your CD player could be hard-pressed when you search for a specific passage, but aside from that you have to believe me when I say that this is prog at its finest.
Reviewed by Virtuosity – Spirtitual Progressive Rock Reviews):
“I’ve had my copy of Mei for a few weeks now, and I still play it almost every day, like a sad junkie needing a fix to make it through each afternoon. I confess, I’m addicted. Musically somewhat sparser than their earlier efforts, it is nevertheless a compelling, sublime progressive manifesto. This album is to echolyn what The Lamb Lies Down was to early Genesis – a literary work of untold depth and brilliance, their crowing achievement thus far. The lyrics, which were penned by Brett Kull and Ray Weston, are an epiphany waiting to happen to the unwary listener. Mei reads like a spiritual metaphor, a modern Kerouac-like Pilgrim’s Progress, bathed in a brilliance of eloquence, melancholy, longing and discovery.
It is combination of road trip adventure and tortured spiritual journey, a lost soul burned by love and tormented by despair and darkness, speeding toward something, be it destruction or redemption. Battling his pride and the enemy of his soul, he finally loses control and crashes even as he begins to fight back. Like a drowning man, the harder he struggles against his demons, the faster he sinks. He goes from the darkness where there is no forgiveness (no Lamb, no hope)); no future (no garden, no peace), to a place of realization (spike into flesh); to brokenness, and finally willingness to embrace divine love and forgiveness. In the end, out of the place of brokenness and defeat, the hero finally becomes ready to receive forgiveness and love, even from that place of glaring imperfection.
Nowhere trite or condescending, it is written in a way identifies with ‘everyman.’ Whether we are on a similar journey or not, we can all relate to the themes of love lost, disappointment, disenchantment, pride, and the longing for love and forgiveness. The way the album touches on those very human emotions and challenges the listener to deeper and better things is sheer genius. The melodies and symphonic elements to the song are quite beautiful, ranging from simple, sparse melancholy ballads to dynamic, progressive post modern rock, with plenty of synths, hammond playing, hum-able choruses and and tasty guitar licks strewn around the palette and painted masterfully into a pastoral sonic landscape. This is a band that continues to evolve in a fresh, dynamic way.
Not content to simply rehash past success, echolyn has forged ahead, plowing new ground, creating a new genre of music – post prog. They deserve every bit as much popularity as Radiohead, a band who’s butt, quite frankly, echolyn kicks all over town. Mei has quickly become a desert island disc for me, and if you don’t have it yet, what are you waiting for? Order it today from echolyn’s website at http://www.echolyn.com. For more information on Mei and Brett Kull, see the recent Virtuosity interview, {dt 8-13-02}
Echolyn rules. By far one of the greatest prog finds for me, I was blown away on first listen the day I stumbled upon As The World in the used bin. I was captivated by a song title, My Dear Wormwood, which I knew was taken from the C.S. Lewis book The Screwtape Letters. I was amazed to find Gentle Giant reincarnated for the 90′s, with great musicians, an original sound, top-notch production (especially on ASW) and lyrics from a Christian world-view. The first album, impossible to find unless you get someone to tape it or burn you a CD-R, is pretty good and well worth finding.
Things improve for their hard to find second, Suffocating The Bloom, which many consider their masterpiece. And Every Blossom is a rare, out of print EP release featuring some live and unplugged stuff. I happen to prefer the fourth, ATW, mainly because I heard it first, and I think the production is better than the rest. Sony set them up with a big time producer in a major studio, and it certainly shows. The release WTSTS features a Genesis cover, and some late demo style stuff. It and ATW are available through Syn-phonic music. Start with As the World, and look in your local used CD stores bins first since Sony blanketed the world with demos. I’ve bought over ten copies personally, and given all but two away to my friends (one was stolen from my car).
You can also find some live Echolyn on the Prog-Fest CD’s. Follow the links at http://www.ghostland.com/. See also Always Almost and Finneas Guage. In answering a question about the spiritual quality of their lyrics, Echolyn answered that all their members are Christians. Take that for what it’s worth, but these guys are excellent. The band re-formed with Chris Buzby and released Cowboy Poems Free in June of 2000. Not as intensely progressive as earlier offerings, it was nevertheless pleasing and well played by echolyn fans. Available titles can be found through Syn-phonic music: http://www.synphonic.com or from echolyn themselves at http://www.echolyn.com {dt}
Reviewed by Progress Records:
“The American masters of prog are back with a new CD and this time we get a one-track album, almost 50 minutes long. For those who missed the prog elements on their previous CD “Cowboy Poems Free”, on “Mei” these elements are back. Actually the new album can be described as a mix between “Suffocating The Bloom” and “Cowboy Poems Free”. I really liked their last album but this is what I hoped for when the rumours of a comeback started. Lots of variations and complexity plus a good sense of melody. Echolyn is one of the most interesting bands today and if you haven’t heard them yet, it is about time you did. Old fans will not be disappointed.” (review by Olov Andersson)
Reviewed by Ghostland:
“On the evening of Tuesday, May 21st, I was invited to a private listening party of the newly-completed fifth echolyn studio album, briefly entitled “mei” (pronounced “may”). In fact, guitarist/vocalist Brett Kull had completed mastering the album just hours before. The band has spent the last six months working endlessly on the complex arrangements, trademark vocal harmonies, and thematic lyrics. They set themselves a goal of releasing the album in June, before NEARfest, and if all goes as planned, June 10th will be the day. Since I was privledged to be one of the first sets of “outside” ears to hear the new album, I will give you a quick teaser preview without spoiling the record.
A lot of what many have come to love about echolyn as ever-present on “mei.” However, there is much much more to absorb this time around as “mei” is a 49-plus-minute epic in the form of a single track. The band takes their expertise with dynamics to a new level. Not only are the quiet, sensitive moments very moving, but the band turns it up a notch many time throughout the album exposing a harder edge than has even been heard before. In speaking with keyboardist Chris Buzby, he said he really enjoyed jamming over Kull’s heavy guitar riffs. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that parts of the album are angry, but they are certainly dark.
The lyrics are quite complelling and as is typical with echolyn songs, they have that charm that allows the everyman to related to what is being sung. I won’t go into details the theme of the album, as I don’t know the whole story as of yet, but rest assured that the lyrics will be included and that you will be entranced. Speaking of packaging, expect a very different package and graphical presentation for “mei.” This is only fitting as “mei” is such a different album for the band.
This is an extremely ambitious effort and nothing like the band has ever done before. However, as I said before, everything you love about echolyn is still ever-present. Those of you whose expectations were not met by the less-progressive direction of 2000′s “Cowboy Poems Free” are in for a real treat. echolyn takes their music to new heights and gets there in ways you don’t expect. This is an album that deserves to be listened to repeatedly, and with all that is going on, you will find something new each time.”
Reviewed by New Horizons:
MEI
“Described on the band’s website as a “pilgrim’s journey in which many junctions are crossed”, ‘Mei’ is the new album from American band Echolyn – their first for two years.
The most important thing to know about this album is that it consists of just one track at a mere 49 minutes in length. There are no programmable subsections or separate parts whatsoever, just one continuous piece of music. I must admit that I am not a fan of excessively long tracks and as such this album is quite difficult to get into; especially on the first couple of listens. This is not helped by the fact that the band have once again failed to include the lyrics in the CD booklet.
The words can however be found on the band’s website, but if you don’t have the facility to print this it is not much use. The lyrics themselves too are somewhat obscure and difficult to comprehend, which again is a bit of a disappointment since on previous albums Echolyn’s words have often been full of depth and meaning.
The major difference however between ‘Mei’ and say for example Transatlantic’s long epics, is that it appears to be constructed as one piece of music rather than lots of separate tunes glued together. This at least is more original approach.
Original members Brett Kull (guitars & vocals), Ray Weston (bass & vocals), Christopher Buzby (keyboards & vocals) and Paul Ramsey (drums & percussion) are augmented by other musicians providing violins, flute, clarinet, cello and more for this ambitious and ever evolving stream of music which provides plenty of light and shade along the way. The musical moods range from relaxed and gentle sections to the mind shredding Gentle Giant style instrumental interludes with highly complex combinations of melody.
‘Mei’ is no doubt a major musical achievement for Echolyn with excellent sound quality and production to boot. The band’s relentless display of clever musicianship and strong tunes is breathtaking, but sometimes hard to digest which I feel may alienate some newcomers to the group. Also, the length of the one track means that if you want to play any of this album you have to play it all, which makes it a tad inaccessible to my ears.
In conclusion I feel that ‘Mei’ will not be one of my most played new albums this year, but certainly recommend it to existing Echolyn fans. New listeners may want to take a very deep breath before diving in…”
Steve 14th August, 2002
Reviewed by Prog Nose:
“Can you spare a moment? Say 50 minutes? That’s exactly the time you’ll need to listen to Echolyn’s newest. There’s only one song featuring “Mei”. Very daring in these times of meaningless tunes and monotone beats, don’t you think? Who would still take the time to sit and relax in his comfy chair to listen to the whole song? But then again, Echolyn doesn’t aim for a target group. But really taking the time to listen to music?? I don’t think it happens a lot, except perhaps for the real music lover, the genuine symphomaniac for instance. However, it’s not a unique experiment. An illustrious example is Jethro Tull with “Thick as a brick”. We had to stand up halfway to change sides, but that was all. Anyway….
Let’s see what “Mei” has to offer. The inner sleeve shows miscellaneous photographs of still lifes and landscapes, images of people, cars, etc… with bits and pieces of text. These scraps match mainly the amount of fragments being skilfully put together. You can find the entire textbook on their website. I discovered 14 themes in this piece of work. 14 different states of mind, translated into music. From calm, almost classical to utterly chaotic, even sometimes-aggressive music with all the possible variations in between. It feels like an imaginary voyage, a journey all the way through Progland. It’s hard to compare this album with former Echolyn work, because it seems they changed their musical direction. It makes me think more of Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic. Nevertheless, you’ll recognise the “old” Echolyn here and there. This album is a very modern prog-one, like Saga’s “Generation 13″. Few old prog elements, a bit of jazz, rock and blues, a touch of Steely Dan, even “drum and base” are woven into the music, but in a responsible way.
A quick summary: The album is filled with complex music, but, give it some time because it grows on you every time you listen to it. Nowhere is it disappointing and there are always new elements to be discovered. Echolyn have surpassed themselves. The album should also be very interesting for Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic fans.”
Review by Jany
Translation by Walter ‘Haha’ Haentjens
Reviewed by THE STARTRIPS SHOW (Guilherme Vignini):
“This is the new release of one of the most important bands of Progressive Rock of the world. Echolyn shows here your more ambitious project: Mei, a conceptual disk as to many years we didn’t see in the progressive universe.
Echolyn appeared as one of the biggest promises of the nineties. They released a homonymous album (that today is a true rarity) and one of the classics of the decade, Suffocating The Bloom. Soon after, they signed with Sony. But this dream became a nightmare, since the major didn’t know what to do with a progressive album, as the great As The World, the band went to the refrigerator, they left an EP and a CD of studio extra songs, and the band was PRATICALLY FORCED to end. And has people that think is cool to see the clowns of Metallica defending the majors….
In 2000 they returned with the great Cowboy Poems Free, fixing the foot again in the progressive universe. Now in 2002 Brett Kull (guitar – vocal), Chris Buzby (keyboard – vocal), Ray Weston (bass – vocal) and Paul Ramsey (drums – percurssion) they release Mei, a conceptual disk a lot above the average. With just one song (logically divided in several parts), without intervals, they mix several elements that are going from orchestras to electronic drums and samplers, making a true masterpiece.
It is complicated to analyze such a grandiose project; I find until that the intention of not separating the songs was with that intention, that the album is evaluated as a whole. So I can only say that if you like Yes’s Close To The Edge or Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick, you can, or better, you should go forward to this album. The band is more sharpened than never, the vocals are fantastic, and the musicians playing better than ever. And the production is great, all in a very beatifull package (they only forguet the lyrics). That album put Echolyn definitively with Spock’s Beard, as Progressive American’s masters.”
Reviewed by: Classic Rock UK; Issue #46 (Nick Shilton):
“Long before the advent of Spock’s Beard, Echolyn were once regarded as one of the few US prog bands likely to break into the mainstream. Indeed, after a couple of promising albums in the early 90s the Philadelphian band were signed up by Sony, who released the excellent As The World and then promptly failed to back any significant touring.
Subsequently the band split into two factions – Always Almost and Finneus Gauge – before reuniting a couple of years back for Cowboy Poems Free. Never a band to compromise – hence perhaps their short-lived major label flirtation – Mei is one continuous track with an orchestral score that makes most recent concept albums seem as accessible as your average top 40 hit. The 50 odd minutes aren’t divided up into easily digestible mini-chunks and Mei requires some serious listening before beginning to make any sort of sense.
Echolyn won’t be reaching a mass audience with Mei, but at this stage in the game that’s unlikely to be one of their priorities. Look no further for one of the year’s genuinely progressive releases.”
Reviewed by: Tom Hyatt (from echolyn.com):
“The greatest praise I can give to Mei is that, at a point in my life where I am required to continuously run to every destination and I don’t have the time to devote to any entire album that requires my undivided attention, I have been abruptly stopped in my tracks by this masterpiece of modern music.
In the age attention deficit disorder (No!! Not the band you crazy progheads!!) and producers yelling “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!!”, Mei has transformed me back to the days of sitting down and being totally absorbed and cognitively surrendered to Dark Side of the Moon for the entire duration of the album. To me, music is the greatest and most easily accessible form of escapism and Mei from start to finish takes me to a very happy place.
One of my favorite things about Mei, is how all of the different passages are given time to develop rather than shift from time signature to key change to extremes in dynamics to recordings of answering machine messages form psycho ex girlfriends. The bumper car time changes, the variable dynamics and the imaginative key changes are still there. But now they are presented more maturely and organically. These things happen when musicians become old and wise.
The musicianship, of course, goes without saying. As always (almost?) Brett, Chris, Ray and Paul go to prove that just because you have chops that could dice a cinder block you don’t need to remind the audience every other measure. Instead the band cohesively takes the listener through so many moods throughout Mei that you almost feel like your ending a relationship when the song is over (okay maybe that’s not a good comparison. Sue me!!).
I personally feel that the lyrical interpretations are pretty much left up to the listener (at least those who haven’t read Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno”). This, for me, adds to the color of the piece. You can create your own story with the tools that Brett and Ray offer throughout span of the song. Certain metaphors are revisited throughout. I picked up on driving, love, and loss. Derive what you want from these. Although, I wouldn’t recommend trying to form a religion based the words, as I remember one Yes fan tried to form Jonism based on the lyrics of Jon Anderson (they are just songs).
Having been away from progressive, symphonic, art rock, math rock, whatever you want to call it, for some time, this CD has abruptly yanked me back into remembering how enamored and amazed I was when I first heard echolyn perform The Great Men at some run down bar in Willow Grove PA and how fortunate I was to have spent four years with these guys getting the most intensive music experience I will ever know.”
Tom Hyatt, the bitter ex bass player 
Reviewed by Gary Hill, All Music Guide:
“Echolyn’s greatest strength has always been their uncanny ability to craft music that fits nicely within the umbrella of progressive rock while still maintaining a mainstream “pop” sensibility. These guys have always had the full prog complexity and virtuosity, but their music has still been very accessible. Well, they have definitely outdone themselves this time. The group has constructed a single piece that fills the entire CD. Whereas many bands attempting to create a piece of work so epic have simply strung together shorter pieces into one large composition, this really feels more like many movements of the same work. There is a wide variety of moods, modes, and textures, painting a spectacular mosaic. Yet still, the album feels very welcoming and accessible. This is certainly Echolyn’s finest work and will likely be a hard act to follow. ~ Gary Hill, All Music Guide”