NUMBER SEVEN

Right in the middle of a three-album trilogy, Phideaux takes a break to do a concept album that is in itself set up as a trilogy and calls it Number Seven. Whaaa???? Couldn't he come up with a better title? Personally, I would have saved a title like that for my ninth album (number nine number nine number nine number nine). Well, it is his seventh studio album. Musically speaking I guess this is like album 2.5 in the trilogy that's currently in progress. It isn't too far removed in musical style from Doomsday Afternoon. Which is to say if you enjoyed that one, I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one.

The concept is about a struggle between a dormouse (also known as a shrew) and a crayfish (pronounced mudbug around these parts). This is basically a metaphor for male-female couple relationships though it can certainly apply to other couplings as well.

The music is classic Phideaux style. You'll hear lots of elements that hearken back to classic prog yet it's put together in a special way that keeps it from going cliché. For those who miss what could be done with album artwork in the old LP format, the artwork in the CD booklet is top notch. I'm a little hesitant to rate this as an essential masterpiece of progressive rock music, but what the hell, I'm rounding up.

A footnote that I read about first on this site, shrews actually do go after crayfish in nature.