L'OCÉAN

Atoll took an extremely long break (ten years since their last studio album "Rock Puzzle" and this one). The line-up has been fully changed. The only founding member that's left is Christian Beya.

I have been rather indulgent with "Atoll" so far except with "L' Araignée Mal" (bizarrely I rated it only with three stars). But this time, I have to say that this album is extremely poor. French pop music. That's all what we'll get here. Here and there a good guitar solo ("Coup De Coeur", "Lune Noire" and especially "Hymne A Laïah") but the tendancy is not really prog any longer. Even on "Rock Puzzle" some songs were prog-oriented; but nothing as such here.

Only "Sarah/Odysée" is different. It's a classical instrumental track. But not really good, I'm afraid. And it is not the acoustic "Métamorphose" that will save this album either.

And what about the album cover ? Is this a joke ? Inspired from "Tales" (Yes), but really poorly designed. I guess that it is just normal : a poor cover for a poor album. One star.