CITY OF FEAR

It could be said that FM arrived to late to the party to produce much in terms of progressive Rock. Their 1977 debut Black Noise was undeniably a Prog album and so was the experimental Headroom from 1978, but already with 1979's Surveillance they were moving with the times towards more commercial territory as so many other progressive Rock bands from both sides of the Atlantic were doing at the turn of the 1970's and in the early 80's. The trend continued with 1980's City Of Fear and subsequently with 1985's Con-Test and 1987's Tonight. This is a particularly sad affair with FM as they didn't get much of of chance to develop further as a Prog group before the genre's downfall.

Like of the previous Surveillance, City Of Fear is a mixed bag and the ten songs vary in quality and style. A few songs retain a progressive touch, but New Wave influences abound and I'm occasionally reminded of The Cars. The best songs include the album opener Krakow, the title track, and Surface To Air. The latter two songs were included on the band's live album Retroactive on which they sound better than on this studio album. Surface To Air, which is probably the track most resembling early FM, was also included on the more recent live release NEARFest 2006 on which it is extended to nearly twice its original album length.

Overall, a half-decent album with a few good songs and several less than memorable ones.

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