SAFE

And I think that one of the main factors of this failure is the subpar production, which makes the vocals of the album even worse than in Moonshine (the weakest part of this album, no doubt about it) specially the female choirs, simply horrendous sometimes. I don't know if they were in a rush making this album, or maybe they suffered of budget limitations, but I think some tracks simply need more work of them.

And the volume of the instruments? What's that? The mixing is also really bad sometimes? And even the remastered version could not improve this defect very much.

Nevertheless, the magic of Collage is not all gone. Some tracks are so enchanting as ever, like the marvelous Eight Kisses, the folk influenced The Chanting and the mellow and melancholic Made Again. This few moments (especially when the female vocals do not appear) are able to make us dream like no other neo-prog band has made in all the sub-genre history.

Best Tracks: This Time (a rock neo-prog which acts as a fine opener. I specially like the acoustic guitars on it), Eight Kisses (splendid keyboard melodies, precious atmosphere and a great final solo), The Chanting (a bit repetitive, but with marvelous melodies and fine folk influences), Made Again (a more modern sounding track which acts as a sample of the quality that Collage could have gave us it they had not split up)

Conclusion: if you can forget the poor production which makes the vocals sound awful sometimes and the poor mixing which set the volume of the instruments just wrong in some parts of the album, you Will find moments of true magic in Safe. It's too long, cheesy and old fashioned, but also beautiful and unrepeatable.

Sadly, the overall quality is not so high like in Moonshine. With a length of 40-50 minutes and a better production it could easily have reached a four-star rating. Nevertheless, it's unfair to forget this album in the sands of prog memory, because it really has some true talent invested on it.

My rating: ***

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