NIGHT VISION

And I have to say that I was quite surprised with this work. It shows a much harder edge than before to tell the truth, but of course the band was more on the soft / pop side so far.

When you listen to the opening number, it sounds more as an "Ayreon" track than anything else. You can add some "musical" feel and you get the picture. This could have led to some poor gimmick, but actually it is a pretty good number and probably the highlight of the whole. And a song as "Miracle Man" might appear as a heavy or AOR oriented track, it remains rather pleasant mainly thanks to the vocals (but this has always been a strong characteristics from the band) and the fine melody.

But the whole of this album is quite decent and offers some very good guitar moments ("A Million Years") even if there are some flows like the painful hard-pop oriented "Water For Guns".

The "musical" feel is very much present during the average "The Way Of The World" which is probably one of the weakest track from the whole album. Vaguely Supertrampish (but again on the hard mood), the vocal harmonies are quite elevating the quality of the song. The brass only adds to the Tramp feel of course?

Most of "Kayak" fans (whom aren't that many apparently on PA), should be pleased with this album. The band might not have released masterpieces, but they never released a bad album either (at least as far as I am concerned).

Emotional song as "Hold Me Forever" definitely holds the level to a pretty good standard. Of course, you need to fasten your seat belts while listening to "Tradition". It starts with a disastrous pop oriented mood, but turns out to be a very effective prog song (mainly thanks, as usual, to the extremely crafted vocals). Such an emotion is sweating out of these lines? Still, a mixed feel about the second longest track from this album.

Some mellowish moments were almost inevitable I guess ("All Over Again", "How") as well a absolute bottom low "Life Without Parole" (similar to an aful ELO song from the eighties). Do bear in mind as well that the end o fthis work is quite popish and frankly best avoided.

It is obvious that the first part of the album sounds MUCH better than the latter one. I would say that a mean measure between two and three stars is accurate. And thanks to the excellent "Icarus" I just rate this album with three stars.

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