DEAD AIR FOR RADIOS

Let it never be said that Kevin Moore lacks artistic integrity: after departing from Dream Theater during the Awake sessions, he could have gone for the easy money and simply churned out something imitating the commercial hit style of Images and Words, but instead he followed his own muse and established Chroma Key, a space rock project. After producing a range of demos over the next few years and lending Fates Warning a hand in realising A Pleasant Shade of Gray, Moore would release this album to unleash the Chroma Key sound on the world.

That sound, to me, sounds a bit like where mid-to-late Pink Floyd may have ended up had they scaled back the spotlight on Dave Gilmour's guitar work and made the keyboards more prominent. (The vocals even kick off doing the whole "singing through a telephone" thing that Pink Floyd-inspired groups seem to love to do.)

It's all rather pleasant stuff, and at its best is rather relaxing, but at the same time I can't find it in myself to really have especially strong feelings about this album; it's competent enough, but it's just kind of there, and it's in that awkward space where it's ambient enough to be forgettable but not quite ambient enough where that's sort of the point.