THE SECURITY OF ILLUSION

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Now this is a very fine Saga album, maybe one of their best in history. There are only good and great songs on this one and there is variation and a pretty heavy mood about it too which I like. The entrance is a group of chatting people without music flowing over nicely in the great track Mind over matter. After this track we know what we're dealing with. This is Saga kicking ass if I may say so. The next song Once is never enough has the same nice swing about it before we go into one of the two ballad like songs on the album. Alone again tonight is an emotional track superbly sung by the magnificent Michael Sadler. I'll leave it in your hands is more like the first two and then the title track and second ballad, another beautiful track. Stand up is a much rougher one again followed by Days like this, something special with a very nice atmosphere and a different vocalist (?) for once ! Voila is (too) short but extremely fine instrumental (piano) material. No mans land starts with catchy drumming, one of those original inventions by Saga then nice vocal work before the drumming ends the song as well. Last but not least Without you to end this very enjoyable listen for almost 50 minutes ending also with the chatting crowd.

You can say a lot of things about Saga but I believe it's an original and innovating band having made quite a lot of musical switches through the years. And that deserves some credit I think. At least 4 stars for this effort.

""So when the nineties come/ We'll do what must be done/ And when the nineties come/ We'll sing a different song""

These are the words from the chorus of the piece The Nineties from the previous album from 1989 The beginners guide to throwing shape. Indeed a diffrent mood and a diffrent orentation of the band - musically speaking. This is the first Saga album from the '90's so they tried here to be more prog rock than on previouses albums who were more pop with prog leanings. Well despite of an almost 4 years gap between this one and previous one , The security of illusion is better than the mid to late '80's Saga albums. As i said on other Saga reviews , i enjoy very much their music no matter if they were almost down in mid '80's or if they were on the top of the prog scene in the early'80's, the music to me was always top notch. So here we have a more rockier album with a good doze of progressive music, something that Saga always done in early years. This album has a solid sound, great performance as always from Michael Sadler and Jim Gilmour on keyboards and great solos and riffs made by Ian Crichton, and do not forget the excellent prestaion and solid drumming of Steve Negus . As a whole all the pieces are great but with a plus on:Mind Over Matter,The Security of Illusion and Days Like These, the rest are also good. Finally this album is without question a good one, but i can't give more than 3 stars, i prefer early Saga albums and those after Pleasure & pain from 1997. 3 stars for Security of illusion.

Voila!

The previous The Beginner's Guide To Throwing Shapes had been an improvement over poor albums like Behaviour and Wildest Dreams, but it was with the solid The Security Of Illusion that Saga finally returned to form. Indeed, this album is more than just a return to form - it is rather a matter of achieving a whole new form! Saga is no longer a truncated band here, with Jim Gilmour and Steve Negus returning to the fold; they are once again a five-piece band here after two albums as a trio. As a result, the sound is fuller and more powerful. It is also heavier and slightly darker than ever before. Not as dark and positively haunting as the conceptual masterpiece Generation 13, but certainly so in comparison with the band's 80's albums. The songs are energetic and lead vocalist Michael Sadler simply shines here. The material is among the band's best ever and they seem to have a newfound inspiration.

Highlights include Mind Over Matter, Once Is Never Enough, the acoustic title-track and the closer Without You. While there are no weak tracks as such to be found here, power ballads like Alone Again Tonight might make some listeners slightly uncomfortable. There are two short instrumentals on this album, but the first one of these, that opens the album, is only a rather unnecessary introduction to Mind Over Matter (that is repeated again at the end of the last track). The second instrumental, though, is a very nice Keith Emerson-like classical piano piece.

While perhaps not a full-blown Prog album as such, The Security Of Illusion is a solid Rock album that I'm sure will please many fans of progressive Rock. Indeed, in my opinion this is one of the best Saga albums. While my #1 favourite Saga album - the conceptual and very progressive Generation 13 - was very atypical of the band, The Security Of Illusion is typical Saga at their finest. The cover art is awful, but the musical contents are very good indeed.