TALES FROM THE ARTICHOKE WOOD

This is a concept album, although the vocals are all in Polish so it's difficult to tell you what it's about. The only English in the liner notes says "Does the Imagination Hotel at Dreamsea exist at all ? Have the three strangers ever met in there ? Perhaps..." Awesome pictures in the liner notes. I do know that we have "Impressions" about three painters, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso with the opening and closing tracks named after the album's title. So which painter do you like the best ? Or more importantly which sets of songs that are dedicated to these three men do you like the best ? LIZARD can play many styles of music at such a high level, and that diversity is one of the attractions of this record for me.

"Tales From the Artichoke Wood Part I" is a fantastic way to start the album. It opens with gently played guitar, fragile vocals,and some piano. Some Fripp like guitar comes in as we get a full sound 2 minutes in. It's great ! Guitar and drums come in aggressively as vocals follow. Not a fan of those though. Violin later. The first artist we experience is Vincent. "Impression 1" is just over a minute long, consisting of what sounds like a lot of people talking in a room, maybe a party, as a dreamy soundscape follows."Impression 2" is a catchy melody of guitar and drums. The violin is incredible. "Impression 3" has a bit of a jazz feel to it, with some good drumming and organ after 3 minutes.

Next up is Salvador. "Impression 1" sounds like we are in the jungle this time with some flute melodies. "Impression 2" has a heavy duty CRIMSON like melody that comes and goes, in contrast to the mellower melody with vocals. "Impression 3" is spacey for about 4 minutes until the riffs come in.The drums are so crisp, and the organ sounds great too. Next up is Pablo. "Impression 1" is one of my favourite songs, with the aggressively strummed guitar and reserved vocals. "Impression 2" is over 8 minutes long. It opens with fantastic guitar with drums pounding heavily. Yes it's a KING CRIMSON sounding melody. Vocals come in, but it's the instrumental passages that are so amazing. "Tales From the Artichoke Wood Part II" is spacey with reseved vocals and atmospheric keys.

By the way my favourite section is the Pablo Picasso impressions. I'm impressed with the whole album though,and this great band.The only negative and it's a big one for me are the vocals. He seems to yell the lyrics at times and when done in Polish it doesn't go over very well. 3.5 stars.