DISCONNECTED

I appreciate the incredible sound engineering of Airbag albums. I appreciate the dextrous facility Asle, Bjørn and the other band members have with all of the Pink Floyd 'tricks,' and I am one who (usually) loves long, spacious, slow building musical passages and songs, but the way songs 2-4, "Broken" (7:08) (8/10), "Slave" (8:39) (8/10) and "Sleepwalker" (7:05) (8/10) seem to find the band on cruise control as if they were driving 45 mph through the Nebraska cornfields is only disappointing. The opener, "Killer" (9:18) (9/10) is above this melancholic malaise because it has some power and emotion to its music and its message, and the title song, 5. (13:10) (9/10), also rises above because of its non-Pink Floyd, somewhat Steven WILSON feel and its variety of sounds, pacing, and structure. And the sparse and simplistic 6."Returned" (5:11) (7/10), feels like a slightly Post Rock epilogue, after-thought, or space filler. Too bad, guys. After you had reached the top with 2013's Greatest Show on Earth I thought you had figured out the keys to perpetual perfection.

A solid four star album recommended to prog lovers--especially Neo Progheads and lovers of the Pink Floyd sound.