PICTURES

Wow factor! I fall in love with the first song soon, and the after that with the 2th one, a rock song with a country and throbbing guitar riff with prog elements. This is an album that you can love or hate soon, for the accessible songs in highly melodic style, with good vocals Strong and happy moods, energetic sounds, catchy melodies, original guitar riff, and stunning solos, ok nothing to much complex but well performed by talentuos musician, all that you want by a neo progressive bands from the '90, and finally the sound is not infected by metal!!! The bands sounds like No name or Frence Skeem but less elaborated and refined of the last one, the sound is often hard rock with digital keys that remind some electronic games, but don't miss even some mellow moments like in "Jack of Sand" with some nice crossing between guitar and keys solos. I would give this band 4.5 but rounded up to 5, because it's a really adventurous album.

This is an album that require some time, I am afraid. But not even ten x listening saves it's bacon in my castle.

This unknown band from Italy has no biography and no world wide web presence. This is their only album and it was released through the usually quality focused Musea. This album sits well on the label, quality wise.

The music here is a mix of pop-rock, RPI, AOR and Neo-Prog. It is really an easy-listening album without much uber-technical finesse. The band can play and there is no problems there. But their skills is employed on material not fitting their skills. The sound is a mix of Rush, Marillion and thousands of other pop-rock and AOR bands. There are also strong hints of Banco here. This music though requires some good songs. Herein lays the problem of this album. It does not have any good songs. Just some glimpses of what could had been and the potential of this band. This is in short a pretty mediocre album, found on the bottom of the super value boxes around the very few remaining record shops in the world. The cover art is also as bland as the music. It is rare to find cover art as fitting as this.

In short, this is a decent attempt from a band with potential. But it is still a relative failure.

2 stars

Yes ! I did it again ! I found myself another jewel, another hidden gem by searching hard. And hidden it is. Only two ratings and two reviews for this high quality album by an almost unknown band. At least I'm glad I went for this one.

The quality standard is caused by very good compositions and great execution. And I don't agree with one of the reviews the vocals are awful, they sound pretty good to me. And I compare this band with Luxembourg outfit No Name who have just about the same qualities. This is accessible, 100% neo prog in highly melodic style. I agree with John Davie that Synthetic Monkey and Jack of Sand are the highlights of the album and are terrific songs indeed. But the other six tracks are hardly less I feel.

But I don't agree with John's rating. He gave 3,5* but rounded down to three. Too bad, because rounding up would have been more justified here. So I will do that instead. But in my case it's not rounded up, it's a full blooded 4 stars to me. Ok, maybe not the most challenging, original prog you'll ever hear, but extremely pleasant for the ears for sure. Highly recommended for neo prog fans.

Well here is a confusing and not so good mix between italian symph prog and neo prog.

Lately italian prog bands in this style have the temptation of including pop prog in their releases and this one is not the exception.

The melodies are quite boring ,nothing original. Vocals are awful.

But instrumental arrangements and interpretations are good.

So i think that the average of the pros and cons is 3 stars.

You ever been attracted to a record solely because of the album cover ? I kept coming back to this one because of the picture of the blue water and sky. The band is called PICTURES, and they are from Italy. The album is naturally called "Painting The Blue".

I could not find out anything about this band or album except through Greg Walker who described it as "very well-done Symphonic prog with a pop edge". I'm reminded a little of SYLVAN, mostly because these guys too create catchy, accessible songs with good vocals and some great guitar.The lyrics are in English, and the lead guitarists that are used are both guests on this record.

"September" is a good opener, lots of keys and some nice guitar riffs. Perhaps my favourite is the slower paced "Rythym" with acoustic guitar, just beautiful. Another highlight is "Synthetic Monkey" an instrumental over ten minutes long. Lots of time changes and some heavy guitar, bass and drums. There's even a keyboard solo, followed by a guitar solo with drums pounding along. Some quieter parts come later in the song. "Jack Of Sand" has an infectious chorus and a long guitar solo.

This is well played, uplifting music. 3.5 stars.