JITTERS

A lot of people think of Parallel or 90 Degrees as a kind of an alter-ego of the Tangent, but really, they only share the same singer, so they're more of just er... bands with the same singer. Well, my point is, Parallel or 90 Degrees is not a similar band to The Tangent, and you really shouldn't expect them to be.

That doesn't mean they aren't good though! Here we have a great release, which is in a style I have not heard much before - it's sort of a heavy, riff-tacular and perhaps slightly psychedelic rock, with some light bits as well. Overall, this is a very strong album - most of the tracks are catchy and some are really well arranged ("Jitters", in particular, has some beautiful background accompaniment).

The strong songs are, for me, "Jitters", "Standalone" and "The Dock of the Abyss". "Jitters" and "Threesome" are fairly similar, both being fairly straight-forward (structure wise) rock pieces with catchy riffs, and some great piano use. "Standalone" has a great guitar solo and a laid-back jazzy section. "The Dock of the Abyss" is completely different; it's a slow, epic piece with a beautiful chord sequence and great instrument-work.

The album has some fairly weak tracks, mostly "Threesome" and "Entry Level". "Threesome" is weird and has some French (I think) vocals. Both these songs, I think, suffer from being too repetitive and a bit deliberately hard or maybe even a little dissonant.

I think a lot of this albums appeal comes from the fusion on Tillison's great voice with the catchy, foot-tappable riffs! Certainly an enjoyable listen.

In conclusion, this is a unique (to me, at least) album which I can't really recommend to fans of particular artists because I can't think of any they are very similar to, but if you like catchy, rhythmic, rock-based music but with great arrangements and very tasteful use of keyboards and with short-form songs, this album might very well appeal to you.

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