CASCADE

Guy Manning returns with a more song orientated album as the follow up to "The Cure". And a pretty varied album it is. From folk-rock to pop, rock and prog. The average song length are around five and a half minutes. No songs are over eight minutes long.

The songs are filled with various influences. From lullabyes like songs to uptempo songs. From Irish influences to electronica influences. From jazz to romantic pop. From THE DOORS to STRAWBS.

As usual; the songs are filled to the brim with details. The rhythms patterns are pretty weird too. I think Guy Manning is doing a lot of experimentations on this album and he manages to pull it off. Unfortunate; there is no real killer songs on this album like for example Last Psalms and Songs Of Faith from the previous two albums. But the quirky Catholic Education is a very good song and the best song on this album. The rest of the songs are good too. But this is album is not Guy Manning's best album, I am afraid. Despite of this, I really like it. Guy Manning has this unique ability of never being dull og irrelevant. A good piece of keyboard here, a flute there and a quirky rhythm pattern follows. Life is never boring in Guy's world. This makes all his albums so interesting.

Maybe this is not a prog rock album in the purest definition of the term "prog rock". But it is still a very interesting album and worth checking out. But it is not an essential album.

3.5 stars