Chris Caffery
The Jester's Court

The Jester’s Court could be an allusion to the American White House of today where the jester named Donald does his thing these days, that man is probably one of the poorest jokes of the world of today. The title can of course refer to something completely different, and it is the title of Chris Caffery’s new album. It is an album with a really cool and good artwork, and it follows his great 2015 album that was well received by this writer – so perhaps one could have some expectations for this album with that in mind, it could be a good album to have just because of the artwork.

It reminds me of the works of Savatage and also the previous album by Caffery who is a skilled and well-known musician who knows what he is doing. He sings well on the album and the production is really good, perhaps this heavy, slightly progressive album can be described as a bit less exciting compared with the previous album. It is not as fresh as I had expected when I took on the album, kind of a logical follower to the predecessor Your Heaven is Real. The songs are also relatively varied and the playing time is probably short enough to keep you listening throughout, a really solid production.

Solid production and a good album with well-written and good songs, that is a good way to describe what I think about Caffery’s latest effort. This who enjoy this kind of music and especially if you like Caffery’s earlier works it will be a good match for you. But I think the previous album by Caffery is better than this one and I also think that the album lacks a little bit of imagination, I have the impression that it should have been more adventurous to really fit with the great artwork. The album has some relatively strong tracks where I think Magic Man and the title track stands out a bit for me, but none of those tracks really grabs my attention. A weakness might be that the album needs a bit of time to really settle and another slight weakness is that I don’t think it is as good as the previous album.

So the score ends up in the middle, fans of Caffery will not be disappointed as it is a solid album that works quite well. It may not be as exciting as some of his earlier works and not one of the best of the year, but I don’t think a buyer will be too disappointed with it. So my ending conclusion will have to be that this is a good album and that a rating in the middle of our scale is the most appropriate for this album.

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