God Is Dancing in the Rain: Remembering October Project's First Album

October Project circa 1993

Over the years, I have had the privilege of people introducing people to music.  But occasionally, I am able to get people into music myself.  October Project was one such band.

In 1993, I was a newlywed, living with my wife and two other married couples (and a single brother) in a house we shared in Kearns, Utah.  We earned our keep by assisting on the remodeling of this older, red-brick home.  My wife and I had a room with no door in the basement.  We slept on a mattress and watched TV on a 7" black-and-white screen.  For the previous Christmas, my wife bought me my first CD boombox - I had never owned a CD player before.  I was enjoying getting new music on CD format - 10,000 Manics, The Cranberries, etc.

One day, I picked up a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune and read a music review for the eponymous first release of a new band called October Project.  The review was glowing, full of flowery, poetic descriptions.  After reading the description of this haunting music, I had to have it, so I popped in to the regular record shop and bought the CD (which I still have).  I was working downstairs in the basement with the other people I lived with, mudding and taping a bedroom.  I threw the CD on and was instantly taken aback.  I don't know what I was expecting - Dead Can Dance, maybe?  Something more like the bands on the 4AD label?  Something gothic?  What I was hearing was something akin to easy-listening music, something that would later be called adult alternative.  To me, it sounded like Fleetwood Mac, and I didn't like Fleetwood Mac at the time (although I love them now).  Mary Fahl's deep, rich, throaty voice even reminded me of Christine McVie, and that made it even worse for me.  Plus, they seemed so pretentious - I mean, what band would have a full-time lyricist (Julie Flanders), someone who played no instruments, but whose job was to write the lyrics and still posed in band photos?  Come on!  No one else liked the CD, either, so I turned it off.

Mary Fahl now

A few days later, lamenting that I had paid money for a CD that I didn't like, I decided to listen to it again.  I put it in the CD and started painting in the basement.  As I worked, I listened to the music - not for what I thought it should be, and for what it was.  This album was actually pretty good.

It started out with "Bury My Lovely", with Mary's smoky voice singing these poetic lyrics with such intense emotion, set to a piano and gentle chamber orchestra.  The next song, "Ariel", tells a heart-wrenching tale of a woman leaving a love affair, with Marina Belica's sweet voice echoing the chorus.  "Where You Are" and "Return To Me" continues with this musical webmaking of soft music contrasted by Fahl's voice crashing resplendently against the lyrical backdrop.  She truly has a powerful voice.  "A Lonely Voice" has always been my favorite song, a wistful song whose words have poignant, personal meaning to me.  "Eyes of Mercy" picks up the pace a bit with a bit of island rhythm combine with the dulcid interlacing of Fahl and Belica's voices.  "Walls of Silence" has a Joni Mitchell vibe.  The bridge on "Take Me As I Am" still gives me chills.  "Now I Lay Me Down" is an excellent cover of Paul Revere & the Raiders.  "Always" starts out with a low thrum and builds in exquisite intensity.  "Paths of Desire" is a pleasant acoustic ditty.  The album climaxes with the rousing and rocking "Be My Hero".

Perhaps the only complaint that I have about this album is that it is somewhat homogeneous.  All of the songs kind of sound the same.  The light plucking of guitars matched with strings and the explosive voice of Mary Fahl.  But if the songs all kind of sound the same, it is the same, beautiful song.

So I resumed working and put the CD on repeat.  While I slaved away in the basement, I would listen to October Project over and over again.  Finally, my brother raised eyebrows at me and remarked, "I thought you didn't like this album."

My face flushed.  "I guess it grew on me."

But I kept listening to it and listening to it.  Pretty soon, siblings, in-laws, nephews, and friends were listening to it, too.  It was to the point that several of us wound up getting copies of their sophomore release, "Falling Further In", which has "Sunday Morning, Yellow Sky", my favorite October Project song, complete with Lewis Carroll references.  My network of family and friends has kept up with Mary Fahl's solo projects, and "The Other Side of Time" has become a family favorite, spawning karaoke attempts and wedding selections.  (A family member stole my copy of this album.)

I was surprised to find that October Project is still together, without Mary Fahl.  There has been the promise of a new album for quite some time, one that has not been forthcoming.  But at least we will always have this, their masterpiece of a first album.