FLUID DRUID

Definitely not as good as its predecessor, Fluid Druid contains about 40mins of average prog pop-rock. Dane's singing, which in my opinion was one of the highlights of the debut album, becomes more aggressive and unnatural at places (e.g. Crusade). The production is also rather disappointing.

Highlights of the LP are: - Painters Clouds (after the somewhat dragged intro, Dane's romantic voice brings the song to life and a nice guitar solo ends it gracefully), - Nothing but Morning (introduced by a gentle piano and Dane's falsetto it develops in an energetic piece of music enriched with male vocal choruses concluded again by Dane's graceful voice accompanied by piano) - Left to Find (the best song of the album. It's similar to Painters Clouds in structure, but better: a calm instrumental intro based on a nice piano arpeggio leads to Dane's singing accompanied by piano)

Some of the others songs are average (the boring opener Razor Truth, the reggae Barnaby and Kestrel), others are just disappointing (the instrumental FM 145, the irritating Crusade).

Overall, a disappointing second effort after the nice debut album. 2.5 stars, really.