THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE

THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE opens very fluently, with Andy Tillison's Hammond organ instantly evoking memories of Dave Stewart and Keith Emerson, even though it does not sound TOO derivative. As the main melody of 'In Darkest Dreams' gets under way, the listener may worry how soon the lead vocalist, Roine Stolt, will get on his nerves ('Down in the seething mazz... your one last chanze'). Fortunately, Stolt never gets a chance to emote too openly (maybe because his lines were written for him by Tillison?) and the chorus is so catchy the listener will soon find himself happily singing along. In fact, on the entire album the performances of all three Flower Kings sound superb. Zoltan Csorz (on drums) and Jonas Reingold (on bass) are better than ever, maybe because they get such fiery music to play. Stolt's guitar solos are inspired as well. On 'In Darkest Dreams' he gets several opportunities to shine, as do Sam Baine on piano, and Tillison on synth (the same wild sound Rick Wakeman used so effectively on 'Sir Gawain and the Black Knight'). Guy Manning provides acoustic relief in a delicate 'Dance with the Moonlit Knight' style interlude.

'The Canterbury Sequence' is cute, although Tillison would learn to imitate HATFIELD AND THE NORTH more convincingly on later Tangent albums. Both 'Up Hill from Here' and 'The Music that Died Alone' have lead vocals by Tillison himself. Fortunately these tunes are not too wordy, and I see no reasons to complain about the singing! 'Up Hill from Here' is a highly exciting, sax-driven uptempo number, with a wonderfully climactic lead guitar solo in the style of Dave Gilmour.

The album's title tune is an almost unbearably sad elegy on the demise of classic progressive rock, with moving contributions on both sax and flute by David Jackson. Only a few days ago I happened to be talking to an aspiring rock musician who complained she had quit the London music scene in disgust, because just as Tillison says her manager wanted her to 'sell [her] dreams to the mainstream's sway' and 'mould [her] lives to a typecast for today'. Virtually all the bands you will see on TV are completely manufactured. Still, websites such as this one offer all the proof you need prog is not some forgotten genre we have to sneak a listen to 'in our darkened homes'! Perhaps Tillison wrote his elegy in the early 1990s, when truly imaginative prog was very hard to come by?

Rating: three and a half stars.