Foreverinmotion, The Beautiful Unknown

Looking for a new album to put on as you slowly drift to sleep? Or maybe you really wish Enya would one day pick up a guitar? If so, Foreverinmotion may be your next favorite band; even the cover art of the band’s two albums look like the front of every Enya CD.

Foreverinmotion is the name of Brendon Thomas’ one-man band, and the music sounds like a mix between The Rocket Summer and Andrew Bird, but less poppy than Rocket Summer and less catchy and original than Andrew Bird. I am a huge fan of singer-songwriters, but this album really doesn’t do anything for me. I really love the first few songs, especially the album opener “Magic,” but I just don’t get pulled into the album. I thought that after “Magic” I would be hooked, but I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.

Like I said, I may put this album on to play as I am trying to fall asleep, but only after The Get Up Kids’ Something to Write Home About and Slowreader’s Slowreader plays multiple times each. It is a charming, calm album, but I just can’t seem to get into it very much. “Avalanche” starts off really good, but ends like the rest of the songs. The songs all sound the same, and they are quite lengthy as well, not a good combination. I thought I had been listening to the album for a long time, but when I looked, it was only half over.

One thing that I did really enjoy about the album is its lyrics. Thomas sings about positive things, and I enjoyed that a lot. In “Turn and Chase the Wind,” he sings, “I feel so lucky to be alive / Just behind every raincloud is a starry, quiet night / or a beautiful, bright blue sky.” He also sings a lot about love, and the more the positive side of it, not the whole breakup/bitter side, which I find refreshing.

I’ll probably listen to the album again, especially the first few tracks. After that, however, I will probably shuffle on to something else. I was hoping for a really good ending track to lift my spirits, but unfortunately, Foreverinmotion didn’t deliver it for me. While Thomas is very talented, and I feel like there are a lot of people out there who are really going to like The Beautiful Unknown, it just didn’t do it for me.