Anathema's statement on their Facebook's Official Page:
optimist /ˈɒptɪmɪst/
noun: optimist; plural noun: optimists
1. a person who tends to be hopeful and confident about the future or the success of something.
2. a person who believes that this world is the best of all possible worlds or that good must ultimately prevail over evil.
After Anathema’s 2012 award-winning album Weather Systems and 2014’s spellbinding Distant Satellites, the ambient rockers are back with their eleventh full-length, The Optimist. Due for release on 9th June through Kscope The Optimist will soon reveal some of the darkest, most challenging and unexpected music the sextet have put their name to.
Anathema, led by brothers Daniel and Vincent Cavanagh, along with drummer John Douglas, singer Lee Douglas, bassist Jamie Cavanagh and drummer/keyboardist Daniel Cardoso began recording The Optimist in the winter of 2016 at Attica Audio in Donegal, Ireland and then finished at Castle Of Doom studios in Glasgow with producer Tony Doogan [Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Super Furry Animals] at the helm. Vincent elaborates on Doogan’s influence on the recording process “he suggested that we record as a live band, which we hadn’t done for years. Having played a few tunes on the last tour, we were ready for that. Tony wanted to capture that energy you can only get with everyone facing each other… it makes a big difference. He was a superb guy to work with and I learned a lot making this record”
The idea for The Optimist was born from the front cover artwork of the band’s 2001 album A Fine Day To Exit Daniel Cavanagh explains “I suppose you might say the album is semi-autobiographical because this time we used a surrogate,” he says, of the character that is The Optimist “We put sound, feelings and crucially, our own hopes and fears into another person and made him the subject of the songs then weaving my own internal monologue into the narrative of The Optimist. It was John’s idea to write a narrative, so I took A Fine Day To Exit as the starting point”. Vincent elaborates further on the earlier album’s artwork influence “The guy who disappeared – you never knew what happened to him, did he start a new life? Did he succumb to his fate? It was never explained. The opening track title is the exact coordinates for Silver Strand beach in San Diego – the last known location of The Optimist – shown on the cover of A Fine Day to Exit.”
To continue the theme further, the band brought back designer and illustrator Travis Smith to create the artwork for The Optimist. The artwork was created from a series of photographs Smith took on a West Coast road trip.
With the character’s unresolved destiny the three song writing members, meticulously brought the unfinished story to an end – and most strikingly of all – one which is decided by the listener.
ANATHEMA LIVE
Summer Festivals & shows
11/06/17 – UK, Donington Download Festival (https://downloadfestival.co.uk)
16/06 – BE Dessel , Graspop Metal Meeting (https://www.graspop.be)
23/06 – NL, Nijmegen - Doornroosje
24/06 – NL, Valkenburg – Midsummer Prog Festival (www.midsummerprog.com)
01/07 – SP, Barcelona – Be Prog My Friend Festival (http://www.beprogmyfriend.com)
01-02/07/17 – GR, Athens - Rock Wave Festival (http://www.rockwavefestival.gr)
The Optimist tour
08/06/17 – Russia – Moscow – Yotaspace
09/06/17 – Russia – St. Petersburg – ClubZal
03/08/17 – Mexico – Monterrey – Café Iguana
04/08/17 – Mexico – Guadalajara – C3 Stage
05/08/17 – Mexico – Mexico City – El Plaza Condesa
07/08/17 – Columbia – Bogota – Teatro Ecci
09/08/17 – Chile – Santiago – Teatro Cariola
11/08/17 – Argentina – Buenos Aires – Groove
12/08/17 – Brazil – Sao Paolo – Carioca Cluba
23/09/17 – NI – Belfast – Limelight 2
24/09/17 – IRE – Dublin – Academy
Many more dates to be announced soon.
Springfield is one amazing tune! Addicted from the start!
[Mod edit: Spam site]
Is it true?
Leaked and it is beautiful!
leaked? seriously?
if that’s true, please report the leak
Yes, also reported it, but doesnt show up yet. Found it on slsk, so thats possibly the reason…
How did you searched on slsk?
man what is slsk?????
i tried that app soulseek nothing at all the whole app is not even working!!!!
same here… I think it’s a joke or something
My god, it is not a joke. I cannot submit it again, but am listening right now…
There are 3 sources currently, including myself!
how can i find it on soulseek???
yes, I have it now. Sorry for not believe you. I don’t know if this album is beautiful tho… :P
If it is really leaked and you have problems to mark this album as that, you should contact a mod to verify it.
this has leaked but not on net, its all over soulleek. not blown away by it, many will be surprised, many will be 50/50 on it. its a bit sparsed, directionless, electronic scattering beats places into it sound filler and not thoughtfully placed, they’re no too experienced in that field anyway only recently. this is just my opinion. don’t fret waiting for it, production is obviously going to be above AFDTE but not as good, dunno what they’re saying ‘their darkest to date”? this is not a dark album at all, as the title suggest it is optimistic. Pressure from AFDTE appears for 5 secs on the car radio on Can’t Let Go, which has a very positive almost Beach Boys tone to it, interesting since the optimist has left the beach and drove back. Not one of their best at all.
My body is ready
Found th album. Rar file in zipyshare.com here is the link [Mod removed]