LOVER'S END

Admitted, I dislike melodious pop music, that's why I listen to progressive music, preferably to the crispy and crunchy type, the kind with a bite, even if its first taste may be bitter, dull or uneasy. But everyone needs a bit of light music once in a while, so why not this highly acclaimed album from Moon Safari, a band that created quite a bit of buzz.

Lover's End is an album that mostly consists of melodious pop music, with harmonic singing that gets them compared to the Beach Boys. But in my ears it rather sounds like Take That or other boys-bands. It's not just because of the vocal harmonies but also due to the synthetic production and the over-romantic choruses. Of course, there's a significant difference with regular boy bands, they play their music themselves and that they have a bee-buzzing synthesizer in the band. I really can't imagine how such songs could remain interesting for more then a couple of listens. Anyway, if you don't mind nice mainstream pop songs you can sure add an extra star to my rating.

A next thing that bothers me is the ultra-slick sound. It's clean, sterile and clinical in my ears, as if it was fabricated by a computer program. Everything is so meticulously spotless and perfect that it becomes entirely dull and lifeless. There's no room in this music for anything spontaneous, it's all prefab sounds and formulaic songwriting. Still, it's done with skill so if you don't mind very clear-cut streamlined songwriting you might add another star to my rating.

The 13 minute A Kid Called Panic and the 10 minute Crossed the Rubicon are the tracks that have to provide the Prog credibility here but they fail. Both are extended Christmas carols that sound like they were discarded from Yes's Tormato. They are the better tracks here but it remains too predictable, cliché and mellow for me. But if you don't share similar preoccupations with originality, you might like this album more then I do.

On the whole, it bugs me how tame this album is: romantic piano ballads, plastic sounds, prescribed songwriting, carefully applied pop-harmony singing,... There's no natural emotion, no creativity, no excitement. It's all done with skill but it's like a gilded cage with nothing inside. And it sounds so light and stale, like bubblegum Prog that's been chewed by someone else before. No thanks.

There's a whole lot of 'if's in this review and if their all ring 'true' to you then you will obviously like this album more then I do. Not even 'nice' for me. Probably one star, can't make up my mind on that yet.