THE WAKE

Before writing this review, I took a brief look at the other reviews on this site, mainly in order to watch their ratings. Well, the lowest rating is good (3 stars) and almost half of the reviewers regard this album as a masterpiece (5 stars). I've decided to give it four stars: this album includes some of the best compositions IQ ever wrote but "The thousand days" is too mainstream prog and "Corners" even rubbish! And I would like to emphasize that loving IQ seems to be very subjective: I remember all those fanatic discussions between Marillion freaks, Genesis die-hards and IQ fans on our weekly progrock sessions, some even hated IQ and many Genesis - and Marillion fans still do! I think Dr. Phil and even Jerry Springer would have paid a fortune to these progheads for having them in their shows, what a highly dramatic and tremendous hilarious scenes! But seriously folks, this is an album to be carried away to a progwalhalla: what a wonderful and compelling compositions, loaded with captivating breaks, spectacular changing climates ("Widow's peak" featuring halfway propulsive electric guitar, bombastic Mellotron and dramatic vocals), splendid interplay between keyboards and guitar (this is IQ their trademark) and great soli. I can imagine that the vocals and the rhythm-section could cause some discussion but to me they sound OK and in general I like Pete's slightly dramatic voice. Of course "Corners" is a crappy maverick but things has been put right by adding the killer bonustrack "Dans le chateau du parc noir", what a breathtaking build-up and moving guitar solo, GOOSE BUMPS!! For the young progrock aficionados this album could sound a bit dated but it's so dynamic and I love the vintage keyboard sound by Martin Offord, from the hugh triple manual Yamaha CS80 synthesizer to the polyphonic Memorymoog and ESPECIALLY THE OMNIPRESENT M400 CHOIR-MELLOTRON SOUNDS SO IMPRESSIVE!!