GENERATION 13

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IMHO in 1997 SAGA wrote and recorded arguably their strongest album of all time. A pure and pure concept album exploring over 25 songs and interludes the story of social misfit "Sam" and his adventures. Album contains a very wide range of tempo and mood swings with whispered and spoken parts, sound effects and wrapped up in SAGA's instrumentation. Every song bleeds into the next and the entire album runs like a continuous story musically with very few hard stops. This album has also been exceptionally recorded with great sound dynamics for your ears. "Generation 13" is a complete departure from SAGA's song driven days and instead works more on the Whole than on the parts. Lyrics are dark and introspective giving the listener a real thought provoker to make his/her way through. I hope genetic engineering does not ever produce a specimen like Sam to be honest... Overall a captivating piece of musical brilliance with some incredible breathtaking parts. SAGA also employ some orchestration at a few critical moments throughout making this an album which you must live to get.

The most progressive effort by SAGA, even though usually they are not. Well this concept album instead works well from the beginning to the end, and moreover the orchestrations are always vivid. Besides the vocals on the "background" in an apocalyptic New York, are stunning and the output, apart from some prolix parts, is a true surprise!!

'Generation 13' is Saga's top achievement: after a not so impressive return to the music arena in the early 90s, with two albums that simply had some interesting moments, 'Generation 13' showed a band that decided to challenge itself massively. This concept album centered upon the current youth's obsession for futile pleasures and inability to cherish the real good things in life (including love) is a continuous musical journey that relates Sam's wicked way of life until he dramatically finds out that what he needs is redemption. The performances are extremely sensitive in the most emotional and introspective numbers, while heavily ballsy in the rockier ones. The interplay between all members is awesome and fresh, given the fact that most of the band's inputs were exclusively recorded live in the studio. What else can I say about Negus' tight drumming, Ian Crichton's superb guitar playing, and Gilmour's precision in his keyboard duties that hasn't been said before? Anyway, their skills shine here brighter than never before, due to the strength and variety of the material contained in this record. As always, Jim Crichton's bass playing is subdued and accurately subordinaed to Negus' trends (as a bassist) and Gilmour's ambiences (as a bass synth player), and Sadler keeps the usual level of singing versatility, as well as a good complementary activity on his supporting keyboards - he even dares to play some tasteful bombastic pipe organ!! The first two tracks make an impressive entry: first, a piano club ballad accompanied by Sadler's almost sleepy singing; then, an explosive heavy number that includes a medely of some of the following track's main melodic lines. If you're hooked by now, this album won't let go of you. Other outstanding rocky numbers -'The Cross (Home # 3)', 'The Growing Tree', 'Generation 13 (Theme # 2)'. But if you're more into emotionally deep pieces, here is ' 'I'll Never Be Like You (Once Again)'; or if you want your typical symph prog bombast, you've got 'Snake Oil'/'We Hope You're Feeling Better', and also the fiery climax created by the cinematographic sequence that goes from 'One Small Step' to 'We Hope You're Feeling Better (# 2)'. The 'My Name is Sam' tracks are designed under the patterns of industrial technopop, in order to portray the hedonistic ambient of discoteque-goers, and 'No Strings Attached' takes a bluesy cynical look into the implicit selfishness in the cult of beauty. 'Leave Her Alone' starts as an acoustic guitar duet set upon a somber organ layer, until an indie-like psychedelic rock section surfaces, with lots of ghosts shouting, calling and whispering in the background: really schizo! As you may notice, the repertoire is varied, but not lacking unity at all: the presence of some recurring motifs along the repertoire works as a key of integral coherence. A stounding piece of work that shines as what it is, a 90s prog gem.

Most reviewers agree that this particular album by Saga is their most progressive. Now, it might be their most ambitious but in all honesty it has most of their signature sound with some tracks more heavily orchestrated than past material, for me it's more progressive in subject matter then musical. Tracks like 'Generation 13 (Theme #1)' and 'The Cross (Home #3)' harken back to their early days with excellent guitar and drumming with added orchestration on 'Generation 13 (Theme #1)'. Sadler sings well throughout and the band for the most part are as good or better then ever. My only misgiving is the absolute silly voice of one of the characters in this concept album. The character Sam sounds like the worse cartoon/gremlin-like character I've ever heard. It makes a rather serious subject matter, (the degeneration of the current generation) sound rather comical. If your a fan of the band, then by all means this is a must have album. For those that want to hear them for the first time, I would try their early albums then give this one a try. If not for the ridiculous Sam character I would probably pick this one as one of the top three. Still a solid 3.5 rounded to 3. Sam I am not! (sorry Dr Suess :-)

Back in the 80's and early 90's when there wasn't yet too much prog around I was a great fan of Saga, had all their albums and had been to a few of their concerts, Saga was one of the best for me then, still is good but there are so many great progbands around nowadays, Saga has gone somewhat to the background for me now, but I still have a soft spot for them. I remember buying the Generation 13 record in the middle 90's and was very pleasantly surprised about it. It was at that time the best conceptalbum I had ever heard and if it wasn't for The Visitor by ARENA or More grains of sand and Alone by CLEPSYDRA it still would be !! Central Figure in this story is Sam and most songs are about his adventures. Interesting voices and superoriginal compositions and ideas by Saga and sometimes great instrumental riffs (13th generation/Generation 13 for example). But that's not the important thing with this album. When I played it I had to play it totally, every time, because it's that kind of album. And every time it proved a great enjoyment, amazing that a piece of music (piece of art in this case) can do that to you.

Great compliment for Saga for this very special one and I believe their best effort so far ! 4.25 stars

My generation

It is a little bit of a mystery how such an average band as Saga could make such an excellent album as Generation 13. But this is much more convincing and rewarding than your average Saga album. First of all, being a concept album, Generation 13 is much more elaborated than anything else I have heard by this group. Secondly, this is much darker and heavier both musically and in its subject matter. Indeed, it reminds me slightly of Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime and Arena's Contagion. But while I think that Contagion is a masterpiece, I think that Operation Mindcrime is rather average; Generation 13 falls somewhere in between the two in terms of quality, but somewhat closer to Contagion. However, it is not that similar to these albums.

The concept of the album concerns the so called 13th Generation that (as far as I understand) include people born between 1961 and 1981. If that is correct we are talking about my generation here since I was born in 1981.

The album has as many as 25 tracks, but many of them are short and the album is best seen as one continuous whole. It holds together very well. The music alternates between quieter and louder passages and several musical themes return in several different songs. The vocals are very convincing and there is a wide array of instruments including piano and acoustic guitar as well as a full orchestra on some parts adding great depth to Saga's often quite light and superficial sound. The electric guitar work is also great, surprisingly sometimes reminding me of Allan Holdsworth's style! I find no weak aspects of the sound at all. Some parts have a Metal sound and there is very little of the Pop Prog we are used to from Saga. The keyboards are often piano or organ rather than 80's synthesisers.

The best individual track is The 13th Generation but also The Cross as well as the two Chances Are pieces that open and close the album are great. But, as I said, the album is best heard as a continuous piece. The hour long album offers diversity and keeps the listener interested with great melodies. There are some spoken word on top of the music, but thankfully never any proper dialogue or narration that often brings an album down (Operation Mindcrime is a good case in point). However, some of the spoken passages are slightly annoying like the reoccurring 'my name is Sam'. But it does not distract too much from the great music.

Highly recommended! Even for people who normally don't like Saga!

A topic that crops up on the forum fairly often is which albums are difficult to get into. There are apparently lots of albums that disgust us upon on first listen but which we learn eventually to love. Lizard by King Crimson is the one that I consistently cite.

But a topic that I have never seen, and which is much more germaine to the topic at hand, is which albums have you listened to and dismissed as totally forgettable, but later have discovered have sterling qualities that should not be so easily dismissed. And my vote in that category goes to Saga's Generation 13.

So why am I recommending this to you? This album has the type of concept, story and style that made Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime such an awesome album. The music is truly progressive. Saga is all over the map as far as the style of music on this album goees. Everthing from metal riffs to the sounds of a small orchestra has been thrown in. In fact, if judged just on this album, one might categorize them as symphonic instead. The album has an epic sweep to it, and it does not fail to entertain, despite the fact that it starts slowly in my opinion.

This one gets four stars. I found it original and entertaining and memorable after the first two listens, but it doesn't go far enough to be a masterpiece. But for those who have more or less dismissed Saga (as I have) it's definitely worth some dedicated listening.