RING OF ROSES

I like most of the works which feature Clive Nolan and since the band is reuniting for a tour shortly (they will come to my home country fairly soon), I decided to give them another some spins and review their three albums.

''Ring Of Roses'' is the first one of a trilogy of pleasant neo-prog albums. One of the most astonishing performances i-on this album, is the vocal one from Clive. He is very discreet with ''Arena'' and ''Pendragon'' with limited backings at times, but he definitely demonstrates some good skills in this department (especially during the emotive ''Jigsaw''.

This long piece of music is very melodic with moving vocals and includes a superb guitar solo to showcase the excellent Karl Groom. It is the highlight of this album by all means. Such a beautiful track won't have counterparts here unfortunately. Still the album is pleasant, but with little surprises.

Good (but not great) song writing (''The Whistleblower'', ''Painting by Numbers'') which should please any neo-prog fans (and even others). Simple and straight forward structure sustained with the excellent work from Karl are the essence of ''Ring Of Roses''.

Here and there, a blunder like the Marillion Mark II oriented ''Scared of the Dark'' and the funky-poppy closing title tracks.

The longest song ''Hall of Mirrors '' (almost fifteen minutes) could have brought some more passion to this work. Nevertheless, after the ''Grendel'' borrowed theme (and subsequently ''Supper's Ready'' one of course), this emotion is palpable again.

''Hall of Mirrors'' is a very pleasant song, and at no times I found it too extended. Crafted material by skilled people. Shouldn't it be always like that? The highlight again is Karl. He is such a great guitar player! The same feel is induced in the average instrumental ''The Kruhulick Syndrome''. It is only worth a mention again thanks to Karl. IMHHO he is the one who raises the level of this album.

This is a pleasant work. Three stars.