ABOUT THE BLACK EYED GIRL

I'm not sure if it was the album cover (it was) or the fact this band is from Sweden (are you kidding me?) that caught my attention, but somewhere along the line I added them to my collection. This is a concept album about a girl named Lucy who happens to grace the album cover in a black and white photo. While the album cover is tasteful the pictures of her inside aren't. First of all this band should not be in Neo-Prog as there's nothing about their music that has those elements. Violin and cello are quite prominant on this album along with the unique higher pitch vocals that i'm not thrilled about but can tolerate. Apparently this band had a steady diet of KING CRIMSON and David Bowie when they recorded this.

"Theatre" is laid back with vocals early but it picks up as the tempo shifts throughout. Strings and chunky bass 2 minutes in as the vocals stop. They're back before 4 minutes though while strings continue. "About The Clown" opens with strings and piano.Vocals join in fairly quickly and it gets fuller before 4 minutes. "Water" is nice and heavy to start but it settles when the vocals arrive with strings and drums. Some more brief heaviness 3 1/2 minutes in. "Lucylove" is pastoral to open and vocals come in before a minute. It kicks in a minute later but then settles again.

"The Beautifulizer" features strings, drums and bass early. Vocals join in around a minute. It turns intense after 2 minutes for about a minute. "Miracle" sounds great with the strings and guitar. "Interlude" is a short string section. "The Marionettes" settles in with vocals and strings before picking back up as contrasts continue. "The Age Of Lucylove Has Come" features passionate vocals and strings. "Lucy Enters The Summachine" is a really good track as it gets pretty intense 2 1/2 minutes in. "Malenka" is different with the guitar making noise. It's really epic sounding and quite heavy. "Epilogue" is laid back with vocals, strings and a beat until it kicks in before 1 1/2 minutes as contrasts continue.

A good album but one that fails to get me very excited. Well worth 3 stars though.