SONIC BOULEVARD

Tomas Bodin

Symphonic Prog

3.51 | 88 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer

Tomas is again surrounded by some of his TFK team mates for this contemplative, yet moving album.

The Pinup Guru line up (which was rather minimalist) is again backed up by Roine (amongst others), and this is a fine add on, to say the least. The emotional guitar is definitely adding a lot of emotion throughout this work (The Hero From The Cloud). If you haven't seen the CD layout, there are many chances that you would feel a deep TFK flavour while listening to this very good track. Atmospheric, peaceful as well as emotional. It is one of the best track available for sure.

The feeling that prevails during the first couple of tracks (no vocal here), is effectively a strong TFK link: being in the guitar play or in the mood (jazzy during Back To The African Garden).

One jumps from into the Trespass-esque mood (Picture) to the jazzy TFK ones easily (Walkabout). The latter includes a call & response part which is somewhat disturbing and not very welcome as far as I'm concerned. This has been performed a long time ago with greater skills IMO.

This long album also has its flows (Horses From Zaad) and it pretty uneven. The same song can both convey a boredom or a lovely feeling (A Beautiful Mind) but the overall jazzy atmosphere finally works on my nerves and drags this work a little lower in my appreciation scale: The Happy Frog might make a frog happy, but I suppose I'm not one of them.

If the category symphonic jazz would be available on PA, this Sonic Boulevard would easily fit in there but I am not too much into this actually. I didn't expect this filiation either.

There are some very good moments on this album (Morning Will Come), but those are usually guitar ones. As it is mostly pleasant, I rate it with three stars, but don't expect some flamboyant music.

ZowieZiggy | 3/5 | 2008-11-8

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