Level ?
Genres: Synth Pop, Progressive Rock
Description Coming Soon as the page progesses
Total Score: 11
Best Song: CUTTING IT FINE
Heat Of The Moment; / Only Time Will Tell; / Sole Survivor; / One Step Closer; / Time Again; / Wildest Dreams; / Without You; / Cutting It Fine; / Here Comes The Feeling;
Certainly this had to be quite an anticipation by not only prog rock fans, but by synth pop fans as well. Here we have John Wetton, of King Crimson, to supply the anthemic stadium rock-like vocals. Steve Howe of Yes, one of the grandmaster prog rock guitarists. Carl Palmer of ELP, one of the grandmaster prog rock drummers. And Geoff Downes of the Buggles, one of the grandmaster... uh, synth-pop, uh, noodlers?
Whatever, for its intents and purposes... this is a bad album. There's no arguing that these four are professionals who know what they're doing. But the fact is, this was simply done for commercial reasons. Not necessarily to continue prog-rock, or even try to combine prog and synthpop into some mutant synth-prog-pop-rock thing. Even though the end result we have here is pretty decent so...
this is a good album! Just about every song here is catchy and memorable. Nothing is too sappy or ballad-y... not even a song like "Only Time Will Tell". Nothing is predictable... just about everything rocks, and everything is well arranged. John Wetton is a good choice for vocalist, especially for a bombastic collection of songs like this one... where he doesn't really overdo things, you know? Doesn't sound TOO pompous, but the pomp is there.
Most of the stuff here is the typical lost love type of cliche stuff... but you can hardly tell it's cliched because of the delivery. The hit single "Heat of the Moment", with its somewhat trite lyrics is saved by the rather decent arrangement.
Howe works the guitar nicely here, not overdoing it... in fact, maybe UNDERdoing it. Of course, because of the synth-pop influence, we expect to see a decline in the guitar. But maybe the subtle use is nice... like on "Only Time Will Tell"... just hiding in the background, seasoning the song a little. Coming in when really necessary. Maybe. I do miss that screaming guitar though... makes you feel like you're flying over a mountain or something. Why don't we hear guitar like that today? Such a shame.
"Sole Survivor": LOVE IT! Groovy... good chorus. All the bombast you need. Nuff said. "Cutting It Fine" = "Sole Survivor" but even better. "Time Again": OK! I like the goofy drum work on it. It seems like that most of these songs have one member overshadowing the others, but still, they do play well together. I'm gonna have to give a thumbs down to "Wildest Dreams"... which almost seems to be a mockery of prog with the fakey pomp and a general over-doneness. It's another example of those songs where the chorus is so over-done it overshadows the rest of the song way too much, beyond the realm of enjoyment.
OK, END OF REVIEW!
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