MEN WHO CLIMB MOUNTAINS

To make it short, Men Who Climb Mountains is exactly the album one expects from Pendragon. The title is an added bonus for me, as I like to climb mountains myself, although there is no song literally about my hobby on the album. But I read this in Nick's ramblings last summer, so no disappointment here.

The first two songs, Belle Amie and Beautiful Soul, the titles identical in meaning but in French and English respectively, are fine appetizers of what's to come. On other albums this slow intro followed by a fine rocker have been merged to longer openers, but they definitely work as separate tracks. Come Home Jack then reminds me a wee bit of Voyager from The World which is neither very original nor bad. The only little weakness of the album is nondescript In Bardo, but this is more than cancelled out by the following wonderful ballad Faces Of Light. If a title with "light" is immediately followed by the same title just with "darkness" one would expect a stark contrast, and the next track doesn't disappoint with its driving beat. The last three tracks are quite typical Pendragon songs, each with one instrument providing the extra bit. While the end section of For When The Zombies Come is far slower and bluesier than its counterpart in my favourite Pendragon song, Am I Really Losing You?, I can imagine to love it equally after I'll have heard it several times more. While I couldn't hear out an extraordinary solo section in Explorers Of The Infinite which IS something that can be associated with mountain climbing, it has one of the best bass lines I've heard in the last 5 years. Finally, Netherworld is defined by the good keyboard work, especially the section where the keys sound like a blues guitar.

Had Pendragon never published The World and The Window Of Life, this album would have straight 5 stars. But they have, so the bonus for originality cannot be applied, but my rating remains at solid 4 stars with a tendency towards 4.5.