ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY ?

"Nomzamo" had already embodied a stylistic mutation in IQ's musical approach, largely shedding the languishing progressive structures of the second half of the 80's for a more digestible and commercially friendly orientation in which legends such as Yes (Big Generator) and Genesis (Invisible Touch) were also immersed, and which the band's fourth album, 1989's "Are You Sitting Comfortably?", ratified.

Although Martin Orford's futuristic opening keyboards accompanied by Mike Holmes' delicate acoustic notes on the persistent and critical "War Heroes" give it an interesting start, the album once again opts for accessible melodies and a dangerous ride over pop precipices such as the dreary "Drive On" and "Sold on You", or the insipid "Through My Fingers", pieces that do a disservice to the band's legacy.

And both "Nostalgia", the instrumental that precedes the mysterious "Falling Apart at the Seams" and "Wurensh", an intricate piece that Holmes rounds off with some beautiful Spanish guitar arpeggios in its last section, provide the best of the album with their reminiscences of the band's early work, before closing with the hypnotic and conformist "Nothing at All".

"Are you Sitting Comfortably?", the second and last work that featured the correct vocalist Paul Menel who left the band together with bassist Tim Esau after the promotional tour, is probably the most discussed and misunderstood album in the discography of the Englishmen, partly because it follows the aseptic path of "Nozmamo", and partly also because of the successful return to their sources that four years later from the subsequent "Ever" onwards redirected the path of IQ.

2.5/3 stars