Band:	Timid
Album:	Closer To The Sun
Style:	Rock
Release date:	January 2008

01. Who I Am
02. Unsure
03. One Last Time
04. Closer To The Sun
05. Close My Eyes

Closer To The Sun is the first EP of Timid, a young five man band from Switzerland. Their sound is best described as a melodic, playful type of proggy rock, not quite intricate enough to be called progressive rock, but with too many progressions in their music to just be called rock. There are also some metal elements to be found here and there.

The progressive side of their music isn't mind-bogglingly complicated; rather, it consists of very rapid shifts in the musical soundscape, from classical rock parts over bass solos, to poppy passages, then a chorus that sounds nothing like the previous passage and back again to the regular rock part but with an added guitar line in the background this time around. It doesn't sound like they just want to have as much variation as possible in their music, but it simply fits and makes them interesting to listen to. The metal parts in their music are mainly some guitar riffs that definitely belong to the metal category, and the song structures. Solo-wise there are also some goodies in the five tracks of this EP. For example in the second song 'Unsure', which starts with a keyboard and then turns out to be the most "metal" song on the CD, after a riff that reminds quite strongly of Rammstein, comes a superb guitar solo. (From 2:37 till 3:12). There's also a pretty nice one towards the end of the last track, 'Close My Eyes'.

There are two issues with this EP that can be improved on. The first is that while the songs are really quite good and interesting to listen to, this is mainly due to the versatile songwriting and the many changes I wrote about earlier, but the refrains could be a lot catchier. They just don't manage to get me hooked and singing along to them the whole time. I personally think that while this EP is really quite good, that is what it still misses to be "very good" instead of just "quite good". My second issue is with the production. It's very good in terms of clearness; while being clear enough for hearing every single instrument, but luckily not crystal clear, the imperfectness gives it a certain charm. What bothers me a bit though is the mixing. I think the drums are often too loud and the vocals are often not loud enough. Sometimes they're exactly right, sometimes they aren't, it seems to be different on every song.

Summing up; 'Closer To The Sun' is mainly a very pleasant CD to listen to for people who like rock and slightly progressive music. It'll probably be enjoyable for most who like music with variation in it though. They still have a lot of room to improve, but they are already a band that I can recommend to all of you who read this review, check them out!

PS: on their myspace page you can listen to their complete EP as well as one song from their 2004 demo.