NOMADNESS

Oh, God, what a diappointment! After a string of great albums (and right after THE best album, Ghosts) they come with this dud. I could almost feel there was something wrong when I noticed the cover (the band in a bathroom?) and where is John Hawken? After many years having some of the finest and most talented keyboards players in the world, the band simply decided not to feature one and be be a quartet (even if they used 4 (!) guests on that spot, including former member Rick Wakeman on one track). That could not be a good sign.

Not that Nomadness is a bad or sloppy album, none of that. It is simply forced: the band trying hard to be a commercial success (in America, of course). And everything here sounds like that, just plain trying to please the casual american pop radio listener. Well, not everything. They were simply too talented for that. But the only track that is really on par with their glory days is the last one: The Promise Land. Oh, how wish the whole album could be that good! Great song, strong and convincig vocals, powerful rhythm, beautiful guitar lines and, ironic, fantastic keyboards.

There are also a couple of songs that reminds of their earlier, folkier period, in The Golden Salamander and Hanging On the Gallery. The Coombes penned A Mind Of My Own is also interesting. The rest is ok, I guess. Melodic and well done, but really ordinary stuff, specially if you think of how good they were. Or worse, forced. The next album would be better than this one. But, sadly, their golden days were gone.

For collectors and fans only!