NOT OF THIS WORLD

In my opinion, "Not of this World" clearly surpases the previous "The Masquerade Overture"... Maybe not in originality and sound. But in passion, lyrics and in feeling, Nick Barrett managed to surpase the previous and a bit overrated work.

The style is similar than the previous Pendragon albums form the 90's... Maybe it's more guitar oriented, having the Clive Nolan's keyboards less protagonism than "The Masquerade Overture". The album is also mellower than the previous one, offering a lot of slow passages, where Nick Barrett draws marvellous melodies with his electric and the now very habitual acoustic guitars, always with Nolan's keys in the background.

The albums open with an slow, dramatic and emotional piece called If I were the Wind, wich is not the best of the disc, but a good opening... After that, we have the Dance of the Seven Veils, a track that clearly represents the style of this album, more dinamic and with longer progressions (although they are not always appropiate...) than the previous band's efforths. Then Not of this World comes, wich is in my opinion the best long track Pendragon has ever made, with a lot of changes and intensity... After this jewel, comes A Man With Nomadic Trates, in a style similar than Dance of the Seven Veils, but even better, because here we have the best Clive Nolan's work in the album. At the end, World's End comes, wich repeat some melodies of the title track in a decadent and sad style, very appropiate to close the disc, in a similar way of the start of it.

So the scheme of the album, if you've read the last part of my review, is circular! Songs 1 and 5 are similar: a bit sad and dramatic, appropiate to open and close the work. Songs 2 and 4 are also equivalent, with a similar duration and style. The marvellous Song 3, the central piece of the album, it stands alone, being the more complex, complete and representative of "Not of this World".

After that, I have to say than the album is not perfect... Except 2 or maybe 3 songs, the rest of them has some flaws, with a pair of dull moments. I find interesting the slower and acoustic direction this album has, but sometimes I miss a bit more energy. Nevertheless, some slow pieces like Green Eyed Angel are just pefect, and for me, Nick Barrett's voice is more appropiated to sing this kind of songs, than the rockier ones.

Best Tracks: Dance of the Seven Veils, Not of this World and A Man of Nomadic Trates.

Conclusion: having not heard the last two Pendragon albums, "Not of this World" is my favourite from them. It's more inspired than their previous efforths, it has better lyrics in my opinion, and it's structure is ingenious and very catchy. It's a pity the pair of boring moments this album has, specially at the end of the last song, although they are not any impediment to enjoy this exccellent addition to any prog music collection.

My rating: ****

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