EAMON'S DAY

US is a dutch neo prog band formed in 1998 by Jos Wernars (guitars) and Ernest Wernars (bass), but the musicians career dated back from 1978 when first incarnation of the band was named Saga, releasing one album and disappered in to oblivion. They reunite in 1998 and give the band name US, releasing first album in 2000. The second album from 2003 named Eamon' s day is a perfect neo prog album IMO. Everything is well done, elegant arrangements, brilliant vocal parts and above all the bass lines are very intristing. The voice of Stephan Christiaans is very smooth very good, with many jaw dropping moments and fits very well in the music they play. What is more intristing is that the bass is very predominant, sometimes is used like a prime instrument, with excellent chops and elegant interluding with the rest, very good bass player Jos Wernars who is the writter of the songs and has a big contribution as a whole at the album, included vocal arrangements and studio engineering. The music Us plays is neo prog, but not an usual one, like nany bands from this genre, they have a special attitude face the melodic arrangements and has very crafted pieces. The musicianship is brilliamt and gives to the album a very strong and mature atmosphere. The keybords provided by Ernest Wernars, the brother of Jos, are super , well developed and with fantastic aproach of the instrument. All the pieces are super, specially the first two pieces , title track and Sea Song, the album ends with the fenomenal epic of almost 30 min Life In Progress , brilliant nep prog piece. I was very impressed by this band and this album, very good, above many neo prog albums available on the market and unfairly unknown band in prog circles . 4 stars easy, strong album , with not a weak moment .Recommended for sure.

It has taken me a loooooooooong time to digest this album.

Us is blending neo-prog with symphonic prog and AOR. The result is a very melodic stew without much of the intricate tempo changes other bands use. Teenybopper prog, then. Nope ! Us is using a lot of moods in their music. The superb somber Happy Suburbia '78 is a good example. It is only six minutes long, but it is still a great song. Other songs are more heavy, but still filled with emotions and great melody lines. Us still sounds like Al Stewart, Pallas and Marillion. But they have also developed their own identity here. Their musicianship is excellent too and so is the vocals.

Quality wise, this is a great album and one of the best neo-prog albums I have ever heard. A bit tad too AOR for my liking, but still a great album. The killer song is not here, but that is the only fault with this album. I am really warming towards Us and recommend this band. Give them the attention they deserve.

4 stars

This is an excellent album. This was the first US CD I obtained and I was very impressed with Sea Song (the best), Eamon's Day and also Life in Progress. The singer was a bit different as far as the sound of his voice but after awhile you get used to it and actually like the way he sounds.

In any case, this is a very strong album. It was strong enough to get me to order right away 5 of their other CDs. Unfortunately all of the rest were mediocre and a bit boring. These were: A Sorrow in Our Hearts, The Ghost of Human Kindness (although there is one good song on this CD - "Full Circle"), The Young and the Restless, Reflections and Climbing Mount Improbable.

My recommendation, for what it is worth, is listen to Eamon's Day and buy it - very good progressive rock and very unique. Skip all the rest.