NUMBER SEVEN

I discovered this band in a fairly generic way a couple of months ago; through Last.fm rather than from anyone's recommendation. After being hooked on "Doomsday Afternoon" for a few weeks, I knew I had to give their latest album a listen when it was released. It was by happy coincidence that it was available just when I wanted to try some of Phideaux's other albums. Needless to say I bought the album from Amazon's music store (it's unavailable in CD form over here in the UK, unfortunately).

It took me 3 careful listens to fully comprehend the mastery of music on display in this album. Covering numerous themes and pulling in influences from many of my favorite classic rock bands, whilst blending in a modern edge to it all, Phideaux and the other band members have each brought their own styles and blended them together to create a masterpiece.

Just a few of the highlights include the busy, twisting and melodic "Gift of the Flame" and the latter tracks on the album (including "Love Theme from Number Seven"). I'm not going to go into detail about each track as it spoils the surprise and sets expectations. What I do notice though is that the individual talents of each band member are evident in every song. The ONLY weak point on the album is on "Search for Terrestrial Life", where the singing is a bit off-key until later on in the track.

With albums of such quality and surpassing those of much more "successful" bands, I'm surprised Phideaux is not more popular than he is outside of prog-rock circles. A UK/Europe live tour would gain a huge amount of fans, in my opinion.

Roll on 7 1/2!