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Eloy - Colours CD (album) cover

COLOURS

Eloy

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.70 | 501 ratings

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progaardvark
3 stars After a series of extraordinarily well received releases, the 1980s would see Eloy moving into a new direction. After the departure of keyboardist Detlev Schmidtchen and drummer Jürgen Rosenthal due to what Bornemann says were ego issues, Eloy found itself with three new members: Hannes Arkona supplementing Bornemann on guitar, Hannes Folberth on keyboards, and Jim McGillivray on drums. Bornemann had previously worked with Arkona and Folberth and was good friends with them.

Their first release together, Colours, would mark Eloy's first entry into the 1980s. Like most other prog bands before them, there was a trend to make shorter, more radio-friendly pieces. Eloy was no different. It just took them longer to get that memo. But the memo finally arrived on Colours.

Musically this album just does not compare to Ocean and Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes. It's not bad, but it's a far cry from the usual symphonic space rock this band was known for. Instead they opted for shorter, keyboard-heavy songs, slightly spacey in feel. Unfortunately, Folberth wasn't in the same league as Schmidtchen as a keyboard player. Oh, he was good, but Schmidtchen was the best Eloy ever had. Some of the songs, like Child Migration, showed a more hard rock feel. Much of the material bordered on AOR.

About this time (maybe it shows more on later albums), the band struggled with various members wanting to move Eloy in one direction or other, and it would show for the rest of the decade. Even so, Eloy's 1980s output was usually much better than other prog bands at the time. Colours is a disappointing follow-up to Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes, but not as bad as it could have been. A good album, but hardly essential. Three stars.

progaardvark | 3/5 |

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