CHIMPAN A

This album unfortunately does not flow coherently enough. At times bordering on avante-garde and yet other times simply trip hop. Yes vocally strong with some good windpipes in the voice division but overall the album fails to deliver a consistent thread and blows hot and cold too often to command tolerance. Borderline crossover entrance yet the theme parts alone are not enough to raise the bar. ' Sam's Song' is OK as is " You Move in Me' but Magenta and PF support vocalists have done much better before. Completionists will already have this album and I guess exposure to the material may stay, sadly, with completionists too. Not to say the musicianship is not good, but there is that ' been there, done that, worn the T-shirt' feel to the output.

To see this rated so lowly on this site pains me greatly. Released in 2006 but I don't think the band was added to PA until many years later. It flew under the radar upon release and now gets no love at all as their follow up finally sees the light after 14 years. I ask for an open mind toward this review and not an immediate dismissal seeing a 1.7 rating prior to my 4 stars. I love Magenta and Rob Reed but finding comparisons to that band would be mostly futile. He and his cohorts on this really wanted to use Oldfield as a jumping off point but create a different animal that you would be unique to what is out there.

One thing from the review I initially read that stuck with me (and I paraphrase), 'Is it prog rock? No. Is it prog? Yes. To call it rock music would be a stretch. There is very little in the way of guitar and there is some scratching like in rap. The whole thing is about beauty, in the sweeping passages and the wonderful singing from both Steve Balsamo and some very talented women. There is narration and I find it to be very impactful and it fits in on the few songs that have it. The music can be delicate and expansive in the same song with melodies that will stick with you. There are strings, horns, piano and just a lot of beauty that will hopefully have an impact on you like it had on me. It is one of that albums that I just like to go to when I need something uplifting and it sits among a small handful that I own that I would put on for my wife and we could both enjoy. It is an album you want to put on in the dark and let it fill up the room with its gorgeous music and angelic singing.

I am sure this is not for everyone but if you are interested in something out of the ordinary I urge you to check out some samples and decide for yourself if you want to be a part of this world that Reed, Balsamo and Rob Thompson put together as a side project that can stand proudly with anything else they have done. 4.5 stars.