ARCADIA SON

This is one of those albums where you will have to conclude if one reviewer gives it 5 stars and the other 2 that the truth is not somewhere in the middle but it's more of an either love or hate case. Because this is an album of extremes and then you get ratings like this.

This music must be coming from some dark corner of Steve Wilson's musical brain. Don't get me wrong, I think the man is a genius and I've always said that. But this must be just about the limit where someone of his calibar can get to. If you expect anything that has something to do with normal or melodic music: forget it ! Why I bought it ? This was because of the stream track Arcadia Son (to my surprise I see this track is no longer there, 2 others took its place) which sounded really acceptable to me. It wasn't even that far from style companions as HIDRIA SPACEFOLK and KINGSTON WALL and I quite like those bands. I also like psychedelic/space by Ozric Tentacles but it appeared that after listening the entire album this is a totally different ball game. You could call this extreme psychedelic or something because in my opnion it doesn't get weirder than this. The M (I.E.M.) that stands for Mindfuck is really suitable here.

Arcadia Son was in the end the only track that came close to normal music but the rest: well, see (or listen) for yourself, because after all, this is only my opinion and I'm just a simple neo/metal progger who is just a little bit sorry he went for this one. Summarizing I would say: 5 stars for originality and 1 star for musical/melodic aspects. But I don't doubt there could be many who really favour this one. So I will leave it totally up to you. 2 stars for my taste (the extra star for guts).