When a band is as willfully eclectic as
Make a Rising -- all the way down to an album title as difficult to remember as it is meaningless -- it would be foolish to expect anything consistent in quality or style on its second album. The only thing predictable about
Infinite Ellipse and Head with Open Fontanel is that sprawling eclecticism, as well as, less attractively, a concurrent lack of accessibility. You get quasi-classical choral vocals; twisted progressive rock somewhat along the lines of some of
Frank Zappa's stuff; meditative, moody impressionistic piano that glides into a chamber-like piece; and bursts of noise percussion. And, more than anything else, you get lots of traces of
the Beach Boys at their freakiest. It's not enough to say that this is influenced by SMiLE; the mixture of complex
Beach Boys-like harmonies, bittersweet melodies, piano-dominated balladry, unusual mini-orchestral arrangements, and intrusions of odd miscellaneous noises is enough to make one suspect that one or more of the musicians have not only studied SMiLE, but also its many bootlegged outtakes. It's also enough to make one wish, if only in theory, that perhaps they might do a whole album along these lines, instead of changing course with some regularity. That's obviously not
Make a Rising's bag, however. You've got to take it all in, no matter what your taste, which makes it more original than a mere SMiLE-like facsimile, but also less listenable from start to finish. ~ Richie Unterberger