THE DANGERS OF STRANGERS

Abel Ganz's The Dangers of Strangers finds the band sounding rather tired and uninspired. The rather dated keyboard sound and unoriginal guitar solos don't help - Steve Rothery and Mark Kelly phoned and said they wanted their sound back, guys - and the uninspired songwriting doesn't really help either. The title track is fun enough once the soloing starts at about five minutes in, but even at its best the album is a lazy retread of the sort of Genesis-lite territory numerous other neo-prog bands explore all the time, and it doesn't offer any compelling reason why listeners should pay attention to it over classic Genesis, or Fish-era Marillion, or Pendragon, or IQ, or any one of the vast number of bands who have explored this territory before and done it better besides.