"Walk Among The Poppies" is a journey through grit and grace, fueled by cinematic indie, as tender as it is rebellious. At the hands of creative partners Mark Goodman and Brian Charles, they fill a relatively economical 34 minutes and 18 seconds with ten tracks of raw yet richly layered music that never wears out its welcome.
"Walk Among The Poppies" is a record that matters. It's not simply the melody, it's the message. Goodman and Charles summon the spirit of the underground, blending textured guitar work, vintage rhythms, and a lyrical voice that speaks to perseverance as well as self-belief. You get their ethos loud and clear from the hook. More than just a lyric, it is a mantra for survival, in art and in life.
As the spotlight single, "The Other Side," it shines bright at the album's center. With a pounding, Moe Tucker–like drum section serving as its foundation, it's a song that crackles with determination, urging you to keep going, even if where you're headed is unclear. It distills the heartbeat of the record: resilient, wistful, and very much alive.
Other standouts like "Mountains" and "Birds Aren't Real" stretch this palette even further. "Mountains" carries the listener on a momentum-propelled climb, an indie-rock with half-formed lyrical intuition, and "Birds Aren't Real" contrasts texture and wit, an examination of belief versus perception that is at once clever and introspective.
Each track feels purposeful, taking in air with luminescent melody. There's a bracing sincerity to Major Spark's sound, a sense that algorithms didn't construct these songs but, instead, for people who still feel. "Walk Among The Poppies" is a statement of power and passion from a pair who know exactly who they are, unafraid to experiment, unafraid to breathe in the moment, and unafraid to keep on walking.
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