FREQUENCY

Though "Ryker Skies"(9:45) (10/10) is a great song--one of the best of the Naughties--Frequency as a whole displays nothing new except perfected, refined, even re-hashed IQ Neo-prog (which is, in itself, rehashed imitation of the melodic symphonic and crossover bands of the late 1970s). The album's much-raved-about prog epic, "The Province of the King"(13:42) (7/10) is familiar, textbook GENESIS/IQ. Too bad that Peter Nicholls' rather pleasant voice is always the same. Too bad that most of Neo-prog's good ideas have already been used. Too many times. (GENESIS were great, weren't they?!)

Four stars for great sound and performances; three stars because it's all been heard/done before. Rated up for the nice music (What if someone were to run across this album who had A] never heard Genesis before, and B] had not heard much of IQ before??)