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For those of you who love beautiful melody which by first spin engages your mind, this is definitely an album for you because almost all tracks are accessible to many ears. Neo prog lovers would definitely love this album as well because the music resembles the old days of neo prog with sometimes mellow music, slow to medium tempo, nice and stunning guitar work and touchy piano work. It's basically a composition that flows smoothly and naturally (most of the time you can predict how the chords and notes are about to move from one segment to another) with mellow or slow to medium tempo and relatively simple arrangement. A good example of this characteristic is shown completely and perfectly at track 3 "Moving On" .

Good music, accessible, memorable melodies, good harmony - and then what? That's a challenging question I have for the band. Why? Comparing to their other studio albums like "Revolutions" and "Seven" this album is musically much more original. As you might check with my review on "Revolutions", I truly adore this album even though I know that the music is not really original - many influences from Genesis and Marillion - I like the melody and composition. The next album "Seven" gave the band a much maturity in delivering their music even tough there are segments that resemble the music of Yes. For this aspect, I do not see any similarity of any segment in the whole CD that resembles to other older bands. I salute the band on embarking their music into a much original composition.

The music flows naturally from one track to another, with good melody and nice vocal of Christina. The problem I have with listening to this album in its entirety is the similarity of nuance from one track to another - it seems flat to me and it does not lift my emotion in any segment of the music through out one entire disc. Yes there are memorable segments but there are little variations in terms of compositions that finally make me getting bored with the music. Oh yes, there are great sounds of organ that remind me to Procol Harum but with modern sound and also stunning guitar work, but then what? I still get bored. It's probably there is nothing energetic in the music.

Overall, this is a good album with excellent sonic production. The compositions are also good but when the CD is listened to in its entirety, I get bored because little variations from one track to another. The CD package is lousy in its artwork. The band must learn from The Flower Kings, The Tangent, Pain of Salvation etc. on how to create excellent artwork. Look at the front cover artwork - you might associate this with first Peter Gabriel's first album. Peter's one is better than this one. And I think, artwork and CD package in prog music is a crucial element. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW