MOYEN-ÂGE

Latest opus from Ange that still reunites father & son since the last few albums; and this one comes with a fairly lavish digibook format and an intriguing artwork. The album opens on four relatively shorter tracks, which sound like your average French rock/pop that should leave most non-progheads relatively cold, even among the French-speakers, though Opera-Bouffe could've developed in something good (alas, it could've). Much more interesting is the 50-mins+ suite Moyen-Âge that gives its name to the album, though the cosmic comic artwork seems to be anything medieval, whether musically or lyrically. But right from the first note of Pain Perdu, you just know that Ange's imperfect greatness, with everything oôsitive and negative that this implies. Indeed there are strong moments, where they approach Crimson (often through Hadji's guitar) and other references, but let's face it: Ange is its own reference first and foremost. What will strike the Francophile proghead is that Ange's texts are still fairly interesting with plenty of nods and winks and tackle some serious issues, but generally fails to drive the point home.

I can't remember how many studio albums the new Ange (90's onwards) has released, and can't really remember how many I heard, but the present doesn't better Culinaire Lingus, but it does tops La Voiture à Eau. So the band still has some great remnants, but can only reach roughly 80% of its former self, but sometimes seems to overstretch itself to keep the cruise control from popping out of operation.