Style: Progressive rock
Recommended for fans of: Porcupine Tree, Oceansize, The Pineapple Thief
Country: France
Release date: 23 January 2026

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Ah, new year, new release slate. It always feels like a spring clean for us reviewers. The albums of yesteryear can be cast off: the great ones will be revisited again when fancy strikes, the forgettable ones can be safely buried in the past, and the bad ones can become a funny anecdote rather than an active trauma. We can look to the year ahead with fresh eyes, with—dare I say it—hope. Can the second release from HamaSaari set the tone for the year ahead? 

Pictures sees the French foursome spread their wings. The bulk of the work here is an Oceansize/The Pineapple Thief vein of light prog rock with jangly chords, soulful lead guitar work and crooning vocals—at their folkiest ebb (“Under the Trees”/the intro to “Below the Lightnings”) they even recall early City and Colour. Some heavier riffs make their way into a few tracks, but for the most part HamaSaari centre a light touch on their tracks. Vocalist Jordan Jupin employs a soft falsetto croon with a lot of Leprous-style oohing and ahhing, and a bevy of backing vocal layers utilised. 

Songs like “Below the Lightnings”, “Our Heads Spinning”, and “Frames” do a good job of highlighting HamaSaari’s progressive compositional style, contrasting the band’s customary lightness with heavier and pacier section. For instance, a dynamic gallop bisects “Frames”;  the mid-section of “Our Heads Spinning” features a thunderous Porcupine–Tree-at-their-heaviest style riff but with far thicker lows. Meatier riffs like these are certainly unexpected for a band who usually stick firmly to The Pineapple Thief side of prog, but these more metal moments undeniably work in the band’s favour, offering a welcome contrast.  

What works less well is the main formula of jangly guitars, flowery falsetto, and repetitive vocalese, which blurs many of the tracks into one (the entire prechorus of “The Wild Ones” is just oohing). Tracks like “Lost in Nights” or finale “Home” fail to make much of an impression. The persistent use of insipid and trite chords that hang without any real sense of memorability robs these tracks of their personality. Folk ballad “Under the Trees”, meanwhile, is just guitar and vocals, with a plucked rhythm that far outstays its welcome and a far too repetitious refrain. Even tracks that get the balance between soft and light right (“The Wild Ones”, “Home”) and offer some more defiant vocal work end up being forgettable. 

The other prominent issue is the production. The mix on Pictures is a little raw in the main, and while this lends to the rustic prog rock quality on the whole, it doesn’t come without a cost. Jupin, already a somewhat meek vocalist, is hardly done favours when he’s being washed out by the instrumentals. But the greater sin is that done to the contribution of guest vocalist Christelle Ratri on the title track, who’s relegated so far back in the mix that I didn’t register her existence until my third listen. What should be an album highlight—she clearly should be a blessing—is rendered somewhat anticlimactic due to some really quite baffling mixing choices. 

Calm and contemplative, with perforations of heft, Pictures is by and large a pleasant listen conducted by a competent group who are let down only by a tendency towards compositional sameness, a lack of overall bite, and some odd production choices. Nevertheless, the frustrating thing is how often HamaSaari come close to greatness—the potential is positively oozing out of frame, but these pictures just needed a little longer in the dark room.

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Recommended tracks: Our Heads Spinning, Frames, The Wild Ones
You may also like: Dim Gray, Esthesis, Look to Windward, Haven of Echoes
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Klonosphere Records

HamaSaari is:
– Jordan Jupin (vocals, guitars)
– Axel Vaumoron (guitars)
– Jonathan Jupin (bass)
– Élie Chéron (drums)