BARD

I do not really know what happened to Martin Read, but he lost almost all of his fine and charismatic vocals through the years. In Goodbye to the Age of Steam, he sang great. English Boy Wonders shows a little decline on his capabilities, but nothing to worry about... However, in Bard his voice became definitely a shadow of his original one. Hoarse and out of tone. That is really sad! No surprise that this album was his last with the band.

The music is the typical symphonic prog with folk elements, tons of acoustic passages, band's trademarks... Nevertheless, with lack of strength and true interest this time. The style of the album feels a bit disjointed, some songs are just too repetitive and the lack of new ideas in comparison with their two previous album is worrying.

The result is a record that is not catchy enough and easily forgettable. Maybe for background music...

Best tracks: some funny moments in Broken English (fine bass lines), Blacksmithing (the best vocal melodies of the album), A Short Visit to Earth (beautiful jazzy passage at 4:27...) and For Winter (the most accomplished song here. I find particularly lovely the female vocals on this one)

Conclusion: the deterioration of Martin Read's vocals along with the boring songwriting, makes Bard the least interesting Big Bit Train album in my opinion despite the fine production and beautiful Jo Michaels's vocals.

Just for true fans of the band.

My rating: **

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