Musical Theatre

The Evening Descends
Evangelicals
Mistletone, 2008
3.5 stars

Sometime back in the mid-seventies Queen wrote a musical version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid for the stage, though it was never performed and remained largely unknown for three decades. Years later, whilst hunting around a local garage sale, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne found the piece in an old shoebox, and together with members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Animal Collective and Broken Social Scene, set out to bring it into the 21st century. None of this is actually true, however listening to the fantastic indie-rock opera that is The Evening Descends you'd swear it could be. Both watery and electric - not usually a good mix, but here it works to great effect.

Artwork: B-

Published in mX, Thursday 7 February 2008.