CHARLESTOWN

Guy Manning is as precise as Switz Watch, so his expected album was sure bet. Rumours of long epic track were being spoken of in Prog circles, but this result shocked/surprised a lot of people. Including me.

I'm holding my breath and here it comes, epic track by Guy Manning. I'm not that much prepared to face it, but here I am, after few listens, this track still sounds "tasty" (which basically means that I'm willing, no no, I want to listen to it again right now). As every long track (except techno "sets", their very easy to describe), talking about this monster, mentioning certain passages is very difficult. As well as grasping it.

It's good.

Very vague description, but I warned you.

OK, you won't be disappointed.

Still not satisfied ? Well then, let's continue in squeezing some more words (it's not that hard, I'm just fooling around) - Title track Charlestown sounds unlike his previous work (or at least stuff I'm familiar with - about 4-5 albums) and certainly not like "Number Ten" from last year (full of not short, but average Prog-long songs). Song flows easily, calm passages switches with these that revolves around storms, wild chases et cetera (ad finitum, de facto, you know Latin). At least I hope, I'm not good at understanding lyrics (in English) and because this is actually 20th time I'm stating this in a review, it's probably true. It slowly becomes cliché though. Anyway, I'll eventually understand it, because I want to (do it myself).

Happier ? I hope so.

There's a lot of orchestra sound hidden inside to narrate (yes, it's possible) this song and I'm quite keen about this song. Guy Manning's voice is something I slowly (my first reaction was shock) learned how to appreciate and now, I like it. Much.

The rest ? Well, it's bunch of nice songs, there is even blues & country part amongst them. They're solid, even not that memorable.

5(-), maybe four minus in future, but so far, it stands.