ATLANTIS

Give this album another halfstar. Although almost a carbon copy of its predecessor , I find this album less worthy but still worth a listen for mellotrons fanatics. As I said in the review of Marching Children, the over-use of Mellotrons is simply too much as this is almost another showcase for that instrument alone.

The eponymous side-long suite has the same flaws as the one in the preceeding album full of delicate moments but maybe too delicate/precious (in the bad sense of the word) to truly enjoy. A useless Prelude , a clicheed Prologue (now there is a redundancy if I ever heard one : Prelude+Prologue) the main theme all too classically inspired , weak vocals composition during Rumbling ..... the lists goes on to stop this from being really and truely a masterpiece..... More like a Prog rock troubleshooting manual . Most progheads into symphonic prog will disagree with this but this is the way I feel about E&F in general along with the many borrowings to classical masters and the mellotron indigestion. Side 2 is rather different with relatively weaker and shorter numbers with one track reprising the main theme of side1 : did I hear the word pointless. Fanfare is again almost a mellotron solo.

So with so many flaws , you might want to ask why I still rate this not that bad..... well because this album does have its charm (this is also true of its predecessor) and does have enough qualities that I did not mention because of the flaws that will remain unspoken by other reviewers.