BROKEN

This EP accompanied my daily commute to work for several weeks. After a brief period with other music playing it reappeared again when I got asked to work away from home and the commute got replaced by a walk to work - the shortness of the tracks fitting in nicely with the shorter journey. With five tracks and a total of 25 minutes it makes an excellent introduction to Magenta and the music they play, but without the long tracks:

Broken is a fabulous opener, about vampires and the pain of immortality, fully showing off Christina's voice.

Call Me is my personal favourite. Originally this turned up on the Cyan album 'For King and Country' (Cyan being a Rob Reed previous solo project on which he played all the instruments). For this version some lyrics have been added about lost and refound love. It starts as a very gentle track, building to powerful finale.

Lemminkainen's Lament, is a ballad which was originally on a Finnish album called "Kalevala - A Finnish Progressive Rock Epic". I haven't heard the original but this version has certainly been given the celtic twist by adding pipes. Nice, but the weakest track on the album. Lemminkainen is a mythical Finnish hero who appears in the Kalevala which is an epic poem.

Opus 3 - Wow! This organ instrumental is just superb, recalling some of Rick Wakeman's extravagances, it is awesome! Turn it up loud! And if you are wondering, Opuses 1 and 2 are on the Magenta album Revolutions and sound nothing like this.

Sloth is a remix of the track off Seven adding in strings and taking out some of the other instruments. A delicious track.

Overall, an absolute gem, one I have listened to again and again. Get it now!