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You should never judge a book by a cover, or even a CD for that matter, but now and again an image can say so much about what you expect to find within. This is very true of Mostly Autumns third album "Last Bright Light". The cover shows a girl, reminiscent of singer Heather Findlay, drawn in the earth tones of the autumn and surrounded by fallen leaves. In fact the whole package contains sure a seasonal imagery and combine that with the track titles, which I will come to later and even the band name and you have already a certain image of the band without yet to hear a track. The whole just underlines what those in the know already associate with this band. Theirs is music that seems to have the spirit of the desolate English wilds running through them, the raw elements and some thing older and less tangible. This is pagan rock. That's pagan with a small "p". Those looking for songs about witches and spells, that seem to pervade some streams of rock music that cater for the Buffy generation, will find nothing here for them. This is the spirit of the Mother Goddess and the lore of the land personified into music and even when singing about less emotive subjects, those images are still at work. Although ever present in their previous albums, here they make a conscious, or otherwise, effort to be let those images and influences loose.

With what has become a signature opening for the band, a wind howls across as a mournful piano wanders through, a quiet start but soon we are up and running with "We Come And We Go". Brian Josh handling the main vocals on this one, a gentle guitar led passage builds into a dramatic chorus with the help of Iain Jennings keyboards that seem to pervade every available space with a range of sounds. The rise and fall of volume and dynamic that they handle so well helps to build and drop tension as required.

"Half the Mountain" typifies Brian Josh's writing and mixes the common imagery of love and landscape. A gentle song underpinned by flute and keyboard develops into a rock anthem and the build and structure of this song, and much of what the band does, has a modern classical feel to it. Bite sized symphonies for the modern age perhaps? By the time the song is heading for the finishing post, classical has been swapped for classic rock and in play out that and seventies progressive rocker would be proud off Josh throws us a grand guitar finale.

Heather Findlay takes centre stage now with her own "Eyes Of The Forest" an environmental ballad

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