A SHADOW OF THE PAST

Don’t be fooled by their name!

I was already aware of FOXTROT nature on purchasing them: they’re nothing like GENESIS, they are more CAMEL. Well, the one who recommended them to me, should have added that they are more 80s CAMEL. And 80s PINK FLOYD, YES, ALAN PARSONS and finally GENESIS too. Keyboards sound awfully cheesy, vocalist is some kind of subdued John Wetton, closing instrumental sounds as if it is a MIDI-file…Despite some nice moments, FOXTROT failed to catch my attention. Yes, I like 80s Pop-inspired Neo Prog like ABEL GANZ or COMEDY OF ERRORS, but FOXTROT is something different. Not recommended, unless you’re interested in 80s Prog Pop.

With clear conscience, I can't rate this with four star as I did before writing this review, few months ago. This is strange kind of synth prog (as I like to call it), drums sounds (good hint PJ) like midi (OK, I read this short review and I agree with this, so why not use it again when it's true) and believe me, I grew old on DOS games, where midi sound was mostly used, then in late 90s (when mp3s were still very rare) I used to listen songs in midi version, so I know what I'm talking about.

"Here Come the Nuclear Warheads" is song with political theme. It reminds me 80s synth music very much. Nice melody, intelligent lyrics, but for a prog little bit, well, this whole thing falls on 80s feelings. I don't like it much. In fact this is why I'm rating just with 3 stars, it has its moments. This song is quite good for example.

But "Silhouette", "The Crowd" and "Monsoon" are terrible. Well, terrible from prog point of view, good from 80s synth pop prog point of view. They're not much worth listening. To lose half of tracks, not good score. There's ne keypoint moment, or theme, something to hook and jump from.

"Warhero" is quite better. It's amongs those listenable tracks here, but don't expect too much. Eponymous "Shadow of the Past" was the main reason why I gave 4 stars previously. It's because of this track.

But even Shadow can't save the day here, this album falls into mere sound of 80s all the time. And that's bad thing, not compliment by my opinion. 3 stars, not so bad for 2, not so good for 4. Yeah, I can't compare it with other albums I've rated 4. Not enough progressivness, that's it.