It seems you can have any picture you like on your credit card … if you own the card company. So, I suppose you could have a picture of holy books, if you wanted. But I don’t think Also Eden had that in mind when they made their latest EP, Holy Books and Credit Cards 1: Promises.

This is the first of a trilogy of EPs due to be released in 2026. It’s available as a digital download from bandcamp now; CDs will be released soon (20th February according to bandcamp, one week later according to Burning Shed). No other formats have been announced as far as I know.

Also Eden is a British band, based on the border of England and Wales. They are:

• Huw Lloyd-Jones, vocals
• Simon Rogers, guitars
• Ian Hodson, keyboards
• Graham Lane, bass
• Guy Monk, drums

Their first album, About Time, was released in 2006. This was followed by It’s Kind of You to Ask in 2008 and the EP, Differences As Light, in 2010. As for why they have waited 16 years for more music, I refer you to the biography page of the band’s website.

Holy Books is 26 minutes of prog-tinged rock songs, plus a bonus acoustic rendition of the title track – all done with just the conventional rock band instruments and a singer. “So what?”, you say? Well, the vocals are right up front in the mix, there’s a genuine passion in the voice, and (unlike most popular songs these days) the words don’t just make sense, they hit home. Behind the man at the mic, the band provides a thumping rock solid platform for his voice and his message. These guys are not breaking the mould, they are turning out perfect reproductions of the vintage rock music that my contemporaries and I grew up with, while looking ahead to the progressive rock of the seventies and beyond. They run on the same tracks as Big Big Train.

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If I was asked to come up with a picture for this band’s credit card, a depiction of the Garden of Eden would be a no-brainer – an apple and a serpent, perhaps. But, for my card, I’d rather have a colourful hot-air balloon.