THE WORLD

The future of progressive music looked quite bleak in 1991: hair bands still ruling, grunge was rising and all major neo prog bands stuck in a rut. They all had either broken up (Pallas, IQ) or gone looking for other markets (Marillion). Jadis was a kind of late comer and really did not count. Bu also it was that time Pendragon resurfaced after a 3 year hiatus. Previously this english band looked like a second rate Marillion in the eyes of many and their previous album, Kowtow, suggested the group might follow others neo prog acts into pop music. Surprisingly Pendragon came back with the first of their truly prog sounding CD. With The World the group not only went back to their prog roots, but actually created a style of their own. The sound was more sophisticated, more focused, more adventurous. Nick Barret had matured his songwriting and the group worked as a truly living thing, it was bigger than the sum of its parts.

Up to 2001's Not Of This World, Pendragon came with better and better sounding albums. They got the recognition they deserved on The Masquerade Overture. Actually Masquerade and Not Of This world were so much acclaimed that fans tend to forget that their previous effords (The World and Windows Of Life) were excelent ones and quite groundbreaking for their time. I myself was one of those fans. Recently I rediscover this CD and I've been hearing it a lot. And although I have The World for quite a while, I never gave it too much attention, something I'm correcting now. After all, it might not have the same development of Masquerade or the bombastic arrangements fo Not Of This World, but the songwriting and the performance are so strong they overcome any limitations they might had at the time. The music still soars convincily and the emotions are the same. It was hailed by critics as a classic in 1991. They were right. Highly recommeded.