10.000 DAYS

After a run of poorly-received albums over the prior decade or so, Saga released 'Trust' in 2006 to favorable reviews, which helped the band start to reestablish themselves and prove their relevance. And so it comes to the follow-up and to see if the band could capitalize on this newfound momentum and sense of revival, or if they'd fall back into the "has-beens" category, where they'd spent the best part of the last few years.

The answer lies somewhere in the middle.

'10,000 Days' is a solid album, no doubt. The songwriting and creativity doesn't quite match up to previous release 'Trust', but the band do still maintain a renewed vigor, with some energetic performances and instrumental acrobatics, especially between guitarist Ian Crichton and keyboardist Jim Gilmour. The music is keyboard-driven progressive rock at its finest, and the group show that, in a day and age full of virtuoso musicians everywhere, these guys still have the chops when it counts.

While this record does suffer from a fair amount of filler material, there are some strong compositions that make this a worthy purchase. 'Lifeline', 'Book of Lies', 'Sideways', 'It Never Ends' and instrumental track 'Corkentellis' may not rank among any of Saga's greatest hits, but they're still damn good songs none-the-less.

While '10,000 Days' isn't perfect, it's still a good album by a newly-revitalized band. It's unlikely to convert any new fans, but people who enjoyed 'Trust' might still see potential in this group to continue releasing solid music. "Good, but non-essential" sums it up perfectly.