SAIL THE WORLD

A very strange release. The initial 23-track version from 1994 was (to be honest) just poor, nothing more. Sounded like Mr Phillips tried to do smth in the vein of 1984 (his unique 'prog disco' album released in 1981) but what came out was in fact a sort of instrumental Invisible Men (do you remember that shameful 'chef d'oeuvre' from 1983?). Now, the expanded version is out. The stuff is 23 original tracks, plus 3 additional tracks from the 2010 UK reissue, plus 15 bonus tracks including studio outtakes and a few remixes. What to say? No idea why the artist chose one of his weakest studio albums ever for expanded reissue, usually studio outtakes are expected to be OK if the material originally accepted for releasing is good or very good. But this time the result appears otherwise. The initial album sounds as bad as back in 1994, remastering didn't help and couldn't help. But the boni are quite nice. No not genuine Anthony Phillips guitar dominated 'fairy-tale' prog, far from that. The same... what's it called... synth-pop, yes? - as on the CD1, sometimes just musical sketches without start and end, but more dreamy, heartfelt and inventive. Even the remixes sound better than the previously released 'definitive' versions. I'd say it would be better if back in 1994 the artist abandoned those 23 tracks collected for the album, and released the 15 bonus tracks instead. A really nice Sail The World could have turned out then. In brief, while the CD1 is as rubbish as thirty years ago (two stars the highest), the CD2 is very listenable and even enjoyable (four stars). So, three stars as the average? Whatever, it's alright.

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