MARS HOLLOW

A very well crafted, well-recorded & engineered, collection of well-executed songs in the vein of MOTH VELLUM. As a matter of fact, they sound, to me, like a cross between MV, STYX, HAPPY THE MAN and a modern (better sound recording) STARCASTLE. In fact, they remind me a lot of STARCASTLE--nice music, well-versed in the YES and RUSH schools of music construction, but just lacking that certain je ne sais quoi. Even the best songs, "Wait for Me" and "Midnight," lack something in the way of originality, warmth and, most of all, emotion. Enticing intro to "Eureka" and, again, well-constructed and performed, it's just that something is . . . missing. Maybe it's the singer and lyrics. They're good but not great--not engaging enough. Or perhaps the vocals and lyrics are too often given too much attention. The key to JON ANDERSON's effectiveness is that his voice/singing/lyrics were constructed and mixed as if they were an integral part of the music--like another instrument; the musical complexity didn't stop or stall for him to sing. "Wait for Me" and "Midnight" seem to have this going for them. The others don't. I don't know. Repeated listenings to Mars Hollow seem to render this music more familiar and yet, at the same time, more mundane, more ordinary. Again, this album is a collection of very well-crafted, well-recorded, well-performed songs. There's just, room to grow. Still, this is one of the better albums I've encountered in 2010 (what I consider, so far, to be a pretty average year).

Four stars, almost three. Guys: More songs like "Wait for Me," please!