...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

Surprisingly strong album considering this followed the loss of guitarist extraordinaire and composer Steve Hackett (and was not replaced with another guitarist). Yes, there is a noticeable shift in style, but several excellent tracks here. With Hackett gone, the sound is even more keyboard-oriented, with Tony Banks dominating the sound, but he creates many very effective soundscapes. Several songs have quite beautiful melodies and themes. They purposely went for shorter songs here in order to fit more songs on, but the style and structure are still very much in the progressive rock vein. The only weakness here is that overall, there is somewhat of a sameness to the songs here (most likely due to the loss of a key songwriter and the more diverse sounds and styles that he brought). Some have tried to make the case that because this album contains the band's first actual hit single ('Follow You, Follow Me'), it signals their sellout, but the song is in the same vein and quite similar to other songs that they made much earlier in their career (such as 'I Know What I Like'), and is quite a good song. Overall a very good album, showing they could carry on as a threesome. Best songs: 'Burning Rope', 'Undertow', 'Deep in the Motherlode', 'Snowbound', 'The Lady Lies'. Weakest songs: 'Scene's From a Night's Dream', 'Say It's Alright Joe'.