LOST PARADISE

I admit the thing that kept bringing me back to this record was the album cover. The sun setting over the mountains reminds me of what I get to see in September here at home. The other thing that was appealing was the liberal use of mellotron that was advertised. Three brothers are part of this six member band, with two of them playing organ, grand piano, synths, mellotron and strings, while the other brother plays cornet, sax, english horn, trumpet and flute.

"Time Reflection" opens with a nice little keyboard melody while the organ plays along. The organ takes the lead and then the sax before we get flooded out by the mellotron. The drums start to build as the organ joins in,and then it's back to the original melody. Good song. "Once" begins with a catchy melody of piano, drums and flute. Things pick up a notch 2 minutes in,as the tempo continues to change. Guitar 3 minutes in as horns come and go. "Fantasia" features some beautiful piano melodies until the horns arrive a minute in as the song speeds up. More sparkling piano as guitar and flute follows. "Where" opens with guitar as we get vocals for the first time. They are poor on this song, kind of shaky with light drums and flute. Guitar returns with mellotron as organ and piano follow. The vocals really ruin this one.

"Yapituttiperslikkenbers" is led by sax and drums until piano takes over. Check out the bass lines ! Sax returns before 3 minutes. "Hommage A M..." opens with flute, acoustic guitar and mellotron. Piano comes in and bass. Mellotron comes and goes and the tempo changes often. "Octopus" is my favourite song here. I love the piano that reminds me of Kevin Moore. After 2 minutes some good guitar with drums. Mellotron on this one as well. "Tree Of Conflict" opens piano and organ before strummed guitar comes in.The vocals are better on this one but average at best. The mellotron waves are fantastic though and plentiful. "Old Man's Voice" opens with flute before piano takes over. Drums arrive 2 1/2 minutes in as we get a full sound.The tempo picks up as flute, piano and guitar take turns leading the way.

This one did start to grow on me and the last three songs along with the opener are very good songs in my opinion. Still this is barely a three star album as far as i'm concered.