HOUSE OF CARDS

Saga's first album of the new millenium didn't really cause a shock or led to a totally new sound. In fact it's Full Circle II to me and I even could copy my previous review on this release just as well. I will not do so because it's against my ethics but it's hard to write a review if there's not much significant to say.

Saga probably decided to play safe for a while after their highly interesting and almost sensational Generation 13 from 1995. It would have been brilliant if they had managed to proceed in this style but maybe it's not really fair to expect this after such a unique "once in a lifetime" album. So I will forgive them for that. But instead we got this underwhelming trio in the period 1999-2003 and it's almost the other extremity I'm sorry to say.

If I'm at my most harsh and negative I could state that I have to make an effort not to fall asleep with this triptych of mentioned period. The albums aren't as poor as Wildest Dreams (1987 when the band almost fell apart) or the artificial Steel Umbrellas (1994) but they are far from their career highlights in my humble opinion. Again three stars.