THE CHAPTERS LIVE

SAGA fans will be in their glory now, the definitive moment has arrived in a live set. "The Chapters Live" is available now on this two CD set. All sixteen chapters that came together over several years for the band, the words and music that comprised eight albums of music that started in 1978, is here, captured live, all of it for the first time. Think about it, what prog-rock album do you know of took 28 years to reach its fruition? This is it, your looking at it.

I could not be more impressed with this set. The 36-page booklet takes you through all the lyrics and the live music is fresh and vital. Simply put, it does not get much better than this, well.if it was in a DVD-A format with 5.1 surround sound, now that would be amazing. Just wait, I am sure it is coming right around the corner. Speaking of DVDs.the band just recorded their classic album Worlds Apart on 12/8 for DVD recently so watch for that, it is sure to be a keeper. In early 2006, a new studio album is due as well. So the SAGA continues, no pun intended.

I was very pleased with this set, the sound is good, the band is as tight as they have ever been, sounding inspired and crisp every step of the way. For a live recording, this is very good, I cannot complain about the overall sonics and presentation. I love this music and I always have. SAGA is unique, an entity that is beyond compare. Let's face it, nobody sounds like them, and they have managed to maintain their popularity even though the band broke up at one point during their career. There is no doubt with this release, a new studio album released this year titled Network, which by the way some folks say is their best in 20 years, they are making some waves. So this band's career is entering a new phase, a renaissance if you will, as fans old and new take hold and embrace their recorded output-in turn prog-rock continues to gain more respect and popularity.

"The Chapters Live" is an absolute must, I say no more. If you are into prog-rock and love this band as I do, this is a no brainer.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck-http://www.muzikreviews.com

This time you can add another half star, cause usually my rate regarding the music of Saga is more precise, but in this case - as it's a live album (as well as the first time I review a live performance from the Canadian pop progressive band), I let you decide within a narrow margin and according to your own preference. Well talking about the double CD, in particular the first one covers all the successful albums of the eighties such as "Worlds Apart", "Images at Twilight" and "Silent Knight", divided into easily recognizable chapters (from 1 to eight)... the style is in the middle between the melodic pop progressive by Asia and the easy approach by Styx, passing through the settlement of a derivative style in the vein of the Neo-Prog movement from the UK, but in a more personal and intelligent manner (some way more modern and "technological" too - in comparison to a few English neo-prog bands such as IQ or Pendragon, even though these latter groups have been closer to Genesis with Gabriel - unlike Saga...). Disc 1 includes some important hit singles of the eighties - sometimes reminding me of Pallas - and despite of being performed in a remarkable way, such songs don't add anything new in comparison to the studio version. Instead disc 2 covers their recent years from "Full Circle" to "Marathon", passing through "House of Cards", another interesting chapter of their career, even though the lack of songs coming from their best album - in my opinion - entitled "Generation 13th", let me stay a bit indifferent...you know I prefer another kind of style, but I recognize Saga as an excellent band, especially talking about their music skill, as They are remarkable musicians; instead their compositions are not brilliant at all in some circumstances (unlike within "Generation 13th") and I'm sure that every Saga fan will give the present live a major score...make your own choice as usual!!

All the chapters of 'the saga'

I'm not sure whether this should be considered the best of Saga, but it surely is very representative of the band's long career and thus a great place to start investigating the band. I don't know how they came up with the idea, but their first four albums all had tracks subtitled 'Chapter #'; the first eight songs here (the whole first disc) are taken from these albums that originally were released between 1978 and 1981. These 'chapters' appeared in non-numerical order scattered on these early albums and it is unclear to me what these songs are supposed to have in common or why they are supposed to hang together in the order indicated by the chapter numbers - as far as I can tell they are not really musically connected. However, these songs are by and large the very best songs from those first four albums and they do work very well in this running order. I certainly enjoy this live album more than any of those early studio albums that were rather weak in my opinion.

Interestingly, Saga once again picked up this tradition in 1999 (almost 20 years later) on the appropriately titled Full Circle album and they continued on the albums House Of Cards and Marathon adding up to a further eight chapters of 'the saga'. The second disc of this live set consists of these more recent songs, once again rearranged according to the chapter numbers in the song titles. So here we have the entire 'saga'. As I said, it is hard to tell why these songs are supposed to fit together in this way, or if they planned to do something like this live album all along. But it sure is a nice cross section of the band's early and more recent output.

I am not really a Saga fan and my favourite album by them - the excellent Generation 13 - does not have any tracks on it that form part of The Chapters song cycle, but still I think that this live album is a nice way to discover Saga. The Chapters Live is certainly not even close to the high quality of Generation 13, but the music featured here is definitely more representative of the band's career and their typical sound. This typical sound actually did not change very much over the years and even though these songs span the years 1978 to 2003, they sound pretty much like they were all written at the same time! Saga really has a distinctive sound that can become a bit tedious after too much exposure at one time, but they certainly have their moments.

By no means excellent, but surely a nice addition to any Prog collection and in many ways preferable to the studio albums from which the first eight songs here were taken.