11 - Hope of the States - The Lost Riots

While the tragic quality of this album is heightened by the suicide of the band's guitarist during the recording sessions, this is an epic album on its own. I have to admit that I am not impressed with the mixing or mastering of the disc. It was produced by Ken Thomas who is extremely accomplished, but I found that the mix just came off much like the British Sea Power debut... too tinny, too brash. Luckily, a good set of speakers and decent equalization can overcome that and to me make this album very enjoyable and very moving.