90125

Five stars. Yes. On these pages this means "a masterpiece of PROG music". Now, many times reading reviews on this site I get the impression that PROG has become a word oh its own, forgetting what it stands for: PROGRESSION! We live year 1983 in the history of rock music. We have survived punk rock, which by the way was a total regression to rock roots, and the main word on musicians mouth is "poliphonic synthetiser" made affordable since a couple of years. Marillion came out with "script" and as a fan of OLD rock music I was more than happy, but I can tell you that at the time they were considered mere copies of genesis, also known as "Genesis for poors" since Genesis was doing pop music at the time. Consider this: when Cinema ( Rabin, Squire & White ) gave sign of life back then, for people like me, grown up in the 70's, sounded like salvation team to the rescue. The main point against this album is the succes it had! So it has to mean that those fabulous musicians responsible for such master pieces like CTTE or Relayer had decided to go mainstream and ( horror!!) COMMERCIAL...Totally wrong, my dear friends. In music it is impossible to know in advance how the public will react to your music, believe me! If such thing was possible, then all musicians would be millionaires, would'nt they? In fact Yes took a huge risk putting this one out under hteir name. The possibility to loose all your remaining fans was really there. But to musicians, and I mean REAL MUSICIANS, it does'nt matter. They do what they think is good music. Hey, seriously, do you think that Jon Anderson needed to join back the band to cash in? Really? Then stop reading, it's your choice. For those who understand the word PROGRESSIVE in music, otherwise, this album is an excellent exemple of music created for the only purpose to evolve. You still have the sound of the band, still have the odd tempos, the solos, and believe me in1983 it was not in to play like that. The sound of this album, Trevor Horn producing, was top notch and really new. The guitar sounds were out of the world. The keys were revolwing around the Yamaha DX7, the latest and technologically advanced synth on the market. Go and see what was these for rock fans to listen to as an alternative in 1983! Is this as important as CTTE? Yes, because the driving force behind the music is the same: the desire to sound different, new, interesting. But of course if you like Foxtrot and Animals ( I do, by the way, very much!!! ) and think that the world of music should have stopped to evolve after 1977, then don't listen to 90125, you loose your time. I forgot one thing: if PROG bands like Yes would'nt have played with orchestral arrangements in the seventies, then rock would still sound today like Elvis Presley. Would you like that?