FREQUENCY

And this time IQ had to face some serious setbacks before the recording of this album, being the most serious one the loss of their co-founder and longtime keyboardist Martin Orford. I am sure that than affected this record, because despite the keyboards are pretty good, the typical Orford sound is missed. He contributed to the composition of all the tracks, and not having here in the record is rather strange.

Nevertheless, the band managed to get going and they recorded another solid album full of impressive moments and great passages. It is also a transition album in my opinion, because acts as a link of the old sound of the band, which ended with the also excellent Dark Matter, and the more modern, dark and compelling tones of the masterpiece Road of Bones.

So maybe this album is not the best from IQ. However, even being an average record for IQ, it is still better than the majority of prog records of 2009.

Best Tracks: Stronger than Friction (the most classic IQ-sounding track of the album), One Fatal Mistake (very touching lyrics), The Province of the King (the most impressive track of the album, instrumentally speaking) and Closer (I just love this song, especially the acoustic guitars)

Conclusion: Frequency is a transition album. It was recorded in a convoluted era for the band being the only album where the former keyboardist Mark Westworth and drummer Andy Edwards participated. It was also the last album with John Jowitt on board, and it contained music from Martin Orford after his departure of the band.

Nevertheless, the quality of the music is still very high and despite it is a weaker album than Dark Matter in my opinion, Frequency is another excellent IQ release and it gave us a glimpse of a very interesting new direction, which ended in the incredible Road of Bones.

My rating: ****

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