MAN OVERBOARD

When I first spun this CD some four years ago, the opener ''Intelligence'' was such a second hand ''Watcher Of The Skies'' and I couldn't help: I was rather charmed by this track (inclusive of the fine fluting). This fabulous ''Genesis'' song has been so many times borrowed of course, but little time with such similarity.

But on top of this, there is a strong link with a song like ''Seven Stones''. In all, this opening song could have been a wonderful one; but as usual, vocals are so poor that they almost ruin what could have been a great track (even if lacking of originality of course).

What's coming next is not grandiose stuff to be honest. Some heavy and unmelodic music with ''Backward Sounds''. As it happens with lots of neo-prog albums (I'm not speaking about the great ''Arena'', ''IQ'', ''Pendragon'' or the likes if you see what I mean), the more you listen to these type of albums, the less enchanting they are after ten spins. This is exactly what happens with this ''Man Overboard''.

Average music, all the way through: no surprise, no fine vocals (on the contrary, these are dreadful) nothing moving. Even if the closing section of ''My Nights'' do display some fine guitar (which is rarely heard with ''Fruitcake'').

There is only one exception here: the fine instrumental ''Goblin Dinner''. Melodic guitar, passionate music actually. The fact that this track is instrumental is for sure not alien to the fact that it the second best song of this work. To be complete, I would add that fine fluting is to be heard during the heavy ''I've Taken Nothing'' which is the closing number. A certain Tull flavour at times...

Three good songs and that's it!

There is a bonus disc available as well, which is a collection of old and unpublished ''Fruitcake'' songs or assimilated. This won't improve the quality level of the album but it is not a bad exercise either.

As a whole, two stars is the highest rate I can provide.