I HEARD YOU LISTENING

The release of "Suffocating the Bloom" was a big event in my listening experience in 1992. I was discovering a rare American band with complicated music structures with three part vocals, but yet easy to get into. The influence of Gentle Giant was obvious and i didn't need more to become a follower of their music through the years. After their hiatus in the 90's, the band came back with "Cowboys Poems Free" that had a more direct rock approach. But with the album "Mei", the band was back with a more adventurous album with a 45 minutes epic. And now with this one, we have songs in the range of 5 to 9 minutes. This is not the most progressive release of the band, many songs are on the mellow side with the constant presence of vocals, which keep the songs enjoyable. "Different Days" is the typical Echolyn song of the past with some breaks, jazzy parts and that typical guitar style. The band continue to play with the intensity of the music that goes to the delicate to the more heavier parts. There is still a lot of piano on this CD. "Once I get Mine" is showing that Gentle Giant influence with the keyboards upfront and a nice break bass/guitar.I had felt in some long passages of that CD that there was not much going on to excite me, despite the beautiful vocals of Raymond Weston. Is this another band that over the years didn't connect with me as much as they did at the beginning? I don't think that the band did change, probably only me.