MONTH OF THE YEAR

Twin Age play a style of neo-prog which to my ears sounds closely related to early IQ - heavily influenced by Genesis, with a guitarist who is able to do a nigh-eerie Steve Hackett impersonation and a keyboardist who is able to masterfully evoke the sounds of classic 70s synthesisers; as with IQ, their music tends towards the darker and more mysterious ends of the Genesis sound, and like IQ they are at their best when they get into a long instrumental section in which the guitar and keyboards can play off against each other.

Their weak link, unfortunately, is lead vocalist Johan Hansson, who gives an earnest effort but is rarely better than "lukewarm". Whenever the vocals come in it's a little jarring, and the musical backing to the vocal sections is usually a bit more pedestrian and predictable than in the instrumental passages.

So, I can't say their vocalist is up at the level of Peter Nicholls, and musically they are not the most original crowd on the block. That said, I think on the whole they've produced a more-or-less credible album here and most neo-prog fans will enjoy it for a couple of listens - IQ fans in particular - and yet, I suspect many will find, like me, that it simply isn't a keeper in the long term.