EYES OF THE WORLD

I bought the two albums from Darwin's Radio in a relatively short period and also in the right sequence so this debut first that is. Darwin's Radio is a rougher edged neo progressive band with good vocals and producing nice accessible melodic songs. I just had a short peek at the ratings so far and I noticed the prog reviewers are obviously less enthusiastic than the guest reviewers. I don't agree with the prog reviewers this time.

Also I could be tempted to leave this album lower rated than the successor that is clearly more spectacular than this debut but that doesn't mean in my perception that this is a no more than average performance. It could also be of course that this style of neo prog is much more to my liking than of other prog reviewers but I simply fail to see where this album could fall short. Already the opening track Erase...Rewind sounds very promising to me and it was actually second song Stronger that made me go for this release in the first place because I really loved it for quite some time.

Maybe these are two of the better songs on this album but I can promise the rest isn't poor by any means. Third track Windows to your Soul is a very nice ballad for instance, 5th track Lapse of Sensation is simply stunning (especially the opening minutes) and also the epical closing song The Vast Within is a very good composition. The other shorter songs are at least nice for anybody's ears I dare to state.

But again: you have to be a supporter of this more accessible almost poppy neo prog to appreciate Eye of the World. Sometimes I'm in the mood for this and then I simply love it. The progressive content is there nevertheless though not of the highest caliber of course. But all things considered I simply believe this is great music and can't dismiss it with a low or even average rating so that leaves four stars as the only possibility (rounded up from 3,75). Very fine debut !