AGAINST REASON

I first discovered Credo with the amazing Rhetoric album a few years ago, and was looking forward to this album. I was nervous it wouldn't match up to the previous album, but knew that Round n Round was going to be on the album so was confident it would be a good one. Well imagine my surprise when I got the album and the track wasn't on there!!!

Staring at The Sun is a great album starter, and the perfect marriage of prog and AOR which will hopefully expose Credo to a whole new audience, it reminds me of It Bites and Rush. The follow up track is Cardinal Sin, which I was unsure of to start with, the intro is "different" and the lyrics disturbed me, but the way it's sung drags you in, and like the whole album the subject matter is up to date and as meaningful as any band you can think of - No cloaks, wizards and princes's here!

The song Intimate Strangers is dreamy yet the lyrics hit hard to anyone who has had their heart broken and Insane gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it, it is preceeded by Against Reason, the title track, which is surely Credo poking a bit of fun at the genre as given the power of their words, its the only instrumental the band have recorded, which is surely Against Reason.

Next up is the stunning Reason to Live which allows Mark Colton to show what an amazing singer he is and how much he has grown since their first album back in 1994. My favourite on the whole album, except....

The Ghosts Of Yesterday - words fail me on this song, I love it and play it every day at least once - it fills me with smiles and tears and makes me feel excited and sad all at once.

I missed Conspiracy off the list, which is the song before Ghosts Of Yesterday, and the music and the singing and words paint a vivid picture of the current world where people like Jade Goody and Simon Cowell can become celebrities, footballers earn £200,000 a week, yet the country falls into ruin around our ears.

Mike Varty and Tim Birrel really push their dual and duel soloing throughout this album and, Martin Meads and Jim Murdoch tie all the great words and melodies together brilliantly

So all said a great album with passion, emotion and a lot of good sense - to ignore it is Against Reason....