STORMS OVER STILL WATER

I borrowed both this, and Passengers, from a friend a little while ago. I still have them. Now, I had heard that Passengers wasn't too popular with some fans, but I personally loved it! See my review for that album. I felt it started off great and just got better. However, this one I find, by comparison, a little disappointing. Once again, I feel the second half of the disc is stronger, but none of the material on here is as good, to my ears, as the songs on Passengers. 'Out Of The Green Sky' is not a very auspicious start; the guitar work is fine, and Bryan Josh sounds quite good, but poor Heather doesn't sound anywhere near up to her usual standard. I think they were trying to sound too heavy and hard rockish on this track. 'Broken Glass' is a tad better, it has a decent melody and sounds more like Mostly Autumn. Nevertheless, the track is not in any way outstanding. 'Ghost In Dreamland' suffers from the same problem, a decent song, but nothing mindblowing. 'Heart Life' by contrast, is rather better, with good vocals from Heather, and nice guitar work from Bryan. The band as a whole sound more into their stride on this track. One of the better songs. 'The End Of The World', and 'Black Rain' are both solid, the former in particular having good guitar and keyboard work, but again, they suffer from not standing out in any way. 'Coming To' is an instrumental, but this is very average fare indeed, and not in the same class as 'Distant Train' on Passengers. Now though, things change for the better, and the last four songs are the best on here. 'Candle To The Sky' is beautiful, a mini epic moving through some nice changes, with atmospheric guitar and keyboard work again. Nice vocals too. 'Carpe Diem' is another good 'un, another long ish effort with a strong melody from Heather, and vintage guitar from Bryan towards the end. The title track could be my favourite on here. Like the two previous tracks, it is a slower number, with strong melody and vocals. The final track, 'Tomorrow', is another instrumental, but a rather better one, and it finishes the album nicely. I have played this a few times, and find it better the more I play it. Nevertheless, it is not up to the standard of Passengers, in my eyes. I have heard that their first three albums are the best; if they are better than Passengers, they must be good! This one is still worth three stars however.