PLEASURE & THE PAIN

WTH!? De ja vue, the voodoo is in you?.. This is so weird. Just when you think that Saga is on a roll, they roll off the ledge. After putting out a group of poor records after their Foundational First Four, they came back with "The Security Of Illusion" and recaptured some decent credibility only to turn around and put out "Steel Umbrellas" another poor entry. BUT THEN?? they come back with the best prog album of their career with "Generation 13." That album took away any doubts that they have a deep prog side to them.

And here we are again?.. Just coming off that we are now faced with Pain, not Pleasure. I struggle to find anything that decent on this. It isn't completely bad but for then most part it just seems like they threw something together and stuck it out there. It is moves like this that kill a band's credibility. Saga tends to jump around a great deal flirting with various musical styles.

Their awesome drummer Steve Negus bowed out of this one for some reason but comes back on the next album.

This one is definitely painful.