ORIGINS

Wow! I'm not sure where to start but I'll go back to their first album from 2015 called 1975 Tryptych, here is a new band that right out of the gate came out with a 5 star album IMHO, the album consisted of just three (3) songs, one which was over 33 minutes long and it was epic! Five years later and they are back but this time they went in an all new direction, a double CD with twenty eight (28) songs as a concept album that reminds me of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" the more impressive thing is, the band now consist of 3 core band members up from 2 band members on the 1st album, what a talent group of minds! There is enough variation in the music to keep you interested but also keeping the songs connected, the music is stitched together nicely, it's a Si-Fi thriller concept album that is set in the future, a drunk scientist found out that his ex-wife a scientist too was murdered, and he find himself thrown into a shady characters world! I don't think I can recall any band that had such a divers first two albums and both are a must! for me they get 5 stars just for the effort alone, but the music and the story line is 5 stars for sure! Enjoy!

A few songs in and I had to turn it off because of all the dialog. I went to the 23 minute 'Infinite Within' and it started with more dialog. That was it for me. The music I did hear play was good. So, I would love to hear a live album of just the music without the dialog!!! That is all me, BTW. Some people love the dialog like on Rick Wakeman or Gandalf's Fist albums. I much prefer the version of "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" on Classic Tracks by Rick Wakeman with no dialog. On the Gandalf's Fist album "A Clockwork Fable", I cut every other track from my digital recording that was dialog only. Here, the dialog is intertwined with the music so you can't get away from it!

This is the second album from progressive Irish trio M-Opus, who comprise Jonathan Casey (vocals, bass, keyboards), Mark Grist (drums) and Colin Sullivan (guitars) alongside various guests including Anto Drennan (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics, Clannad, The Corrs), Conor McGouran (Xerath) and Michael Buckley (Dave Liebman, Kenny Wheeler). Some may recognise Casey better as Arch Stanton, and under that name he recorded two albums as part of the David Cross Band. The album is a narrative piece that includes a cast of actors and guest performers; part rock album, part audio play, part soundtrack, and contains 28 tracks over two CDS, taking more than five years to pull together. The concept is a science fiction story based in 2187 and revolves around a washed-up, drunk, genius scientist called Miller McKee. I am an avid science fan and have been since when at a fairly young age I realised the library contained Star Trek books. Having read all they had, I moved onto other stories by the same author, James Blish, and then discovered whole new worlds with the great Isaac Asimov, Heinlein, Van Vogt, Pohl and so many others. In recent years I have thoroughly enjoyed the releases by Hibernal which are science fiction stories with music, so I was really looking forward to this release.

That the guys can play is never in doubt, and much of the music contains great hooks, and some of the songs are simply outstanding. The voice actors also play their parts well, but the biggest problem is that for me the story doesn't work, or at least it doesn't with the words they are able to use ? it may work better as a novel where it can be fleshed out. There are times, such as on "Perfect Day For Flight For 2019", where there are just too many lyrics in a line, and it jars. Too often there is the feeling the music is being moved around to make room for the words which need to be included to get the story across. The album may be well in excess of two hours in length, but for this to really work it actually should have been much longer: would a listener sit through it?

The result for me is something which feels quite contrived, with nothing really working as it should and each element having a negative impact on the others as opposed to lifting them up. Unlike many concept albums this is a story or audio play, so it needs to be played from beginning to end, no picking certain pieces to play to again as it just does not work that way. There have been many very positive reviews of this album, but having already played this through a few times, when I realised it was next on my list to write about I actually groaned out loud as I didn't want to play it again. A great deal of work has gone into this and the musicians are superb, but I would much rather hear an album of songs as opposed to this. Given so many people have said nice thing about it, people who enjoy commercial progressive rock combined with dialogue may find something there for them, but it isn't for me.

What a great discovery. Haven't heard about this band until recently and came across "Origins " accidentally. This indeed is huge effort with excellent result both in terms of the concept and the music itself. Supposed to sound like music from 80's, it does - and in the very positive way. Listening to the whole thing in one go is the best way to appreciate it with paying attention to the story - downloading lyrics from artist's website definitely helps. With the playing time nicely above two hours, this could present bit of a challenge but definitely worth it. And it gets better with every listen. I understand that narration might be polarizing, it's indeed quite a lot of storytelling and dialog but for me it's part of an experience.. cinematic, as advertised. Lot's of outstanding tunes, so won't go through all of them. Highlights are "2048 Numbers", "Violet Alone" and absolute masterpiece - closing epic "Infinite Within" which has made it to my personal Best of Prog playlist. Looking forward to next release... It's 4.5 stars rounded to 4