TALES FROM THE BOOKCASE

Heavy Neo Prog with multiple guitar tracks from TIGER MOTH TALES' Peter JONES, guitarist Andy Wilson, bassist Mick Wilson, keyboard artist Gary Marsh, and drummer Paul Comerie. A bit AYREON in sound, style and storytelling capacity, a bit Hogarth-era MARILLION, this is well-constructed, immaculately performed, engaging music with great storytelling and lots of musical hooks and surprises presented in a very well engineered/produced package. It's really hard to find fault with this music except, perhaps, in its EDISON'S CHILDREN-like simplicity.

1. "In The Beginning" (3:00) an ominous instrumental to effectively set up the rest of the album. Unfortunately, this one also betrays the overall simplicity of the musical structures. (7/10)

2. "Queen Of The Night, Part 1" (6:54) in the heavier parts, this music is weak, grating, in the softer, more melodic sections it is nice, almost good. It's just so simple! Are we sure this is prog and not classic rock? (7/10)

3. "Calling Her On" (11:01) a tolerable song because it starts out softly, slowly, and then builds competently, if not complexly. Best song on the album. (9/10)

4. "City And The Stars" (8:34) illustrates how much I like the guitar work of Andy WILSON. (8/10)

5. "Lights Of Home" (12:24) is most notable for the prominent bass work. (7/10)

6. "Sunset For A New World" (7:59) has some more nice Andy WILSON guitar leads but the chord progression, bass and vocal melodies (and grating vocal harmonies) make this one a weak one. (6/10)

7. "Almost Over" (11:04) opens with some nice ominous moodiness but goes astray, turns into a kind of TED NUGENT piece--drawn out over much more time than is necessary, never realizing any of its potential. The drum sound begins to grate on me. (7/10)

8. "Queen Of The Night, Part 2" (12:17) at least has some time and mood shifts--and some awesome full-band cohesion in the second half--perhaps the best of the album. (8/10)

My biggest complaint lies in the slow and often simple development and sometimes unrealized potential of each song. This album has GREAT sound and some great ideas but they seem mostly underdeveloped.