FACING GRAVITY

To explain the cover art which pictures a bee and the title "Facing Gravity" i'll quote the liner notes. "The principles of aerodynamics show that it is impossible for a wing area of 0.7cm squared to support, in flight, a gross weight of 1.2 g. The humble-bee, blissfully ignoring of this fact, simply flies". CHANDELIER are a Neo-Prog band from Germany who sound to me more like IQ than they do MARILLION. Regardless this album really did little for me even though i'm a big IQ and Neo-Prog fan. Hard to put a finger on it but the fact is I didn't enjoy this that much.

"Start It" opens with drums and keyboards standing out. Guitar then vocals follow. It's the synths and keyboard show 3 /2 minutes in. Good song. "Cuckoo" is mellow with reserved vocals to start but it does get fuller 3 minutes in. "Itai" is interesting to start with that gong followed by percussion and guitar. Spoken words come in then vocals after a minute. It kicks in before 4 1/2 minutes with drums out in front. "Safe" is really a ballad.

"Glimpse Of Home" opens with keys and fragile vocals. It picks up 1 1/2 minutes in then picks up even more before 4 minutes. It settles with reserved vocals and piano after 5 minutes. Guitar is prominant 7 1/2 minutes in. A change a minute later as synths,bass and drums take over. "All My Ways" is uptempo with some good guitar. It settles when the vocals arrive. Nice bass after 2 minutes. Synths come and go. "This Circling World" features lots of synths, vocals and drums. I like it. "Wash & Go" is mellow with reserved vocals. It licks in before 1 1/2 minutes. Contrasts continue. "Autumn Song" is mostly acoustic guitar and laid back vocals.

So a pretty good album but one I haven't taken to. Barely 3 stars.