NOT OF THIS WORLD

Pendragon's 'Not Of This World' gets off to a slow start, and arguably never really gets off the starting blocks. There's no 'As Good As Gold' to pull you into this album. In fact, it isn't really until the fourth track, the first part of 'Not Of This World', that we get some of the bombastic keyboard and guitar moments that Pendragon are known for, but its over far too quickly and we are back into the slow synth-laden poppy prog we've already been through beforehand.

There's no doubt that the music is well played, but it feels generic and lacking in inspiration. In places this album feels like Pendragon were writing radio-friendly prog songs with far too much pop influence. A lot of the songs sound a bit "samey" (yeh, I know that's not a real word!) and direction-less. The songs are long on this album, which is usually an encouraging sign for a prog album, but they all tend to meander along with too much filler. Where are the time changes? Where is the progression? None of the songs have any real identity - I'd struggle to tell you which song I was listening to at any point in this album as its all too similar.

In my review for their previous album, 'The Masquerade Overture', I said that it would be one of my desert island discs. Where 'Overture' is utterly essential and probably the definitive Pendragon release, this one is not. Unfortunately, as I sit here revisiting 'Not Of This World', listening again as I write my review I have to say I'd let this one sink into the ocean - there'd be no place for this on my island. Initially I set out to give this album a 3-star rating, but in reading my own words back and hearing this album again I'm really forced to drop this down to 2-stars. The truth is this record sits somewhere between 2 and 3 stars. I'd love to up my rating, I really would, I have a lot of respect for Pendragon, but the enjoyable and interesting moments of this album are just too few and far between. There is too much meandering to sift through to get to the few memorable parts of this record.

2-Stars. There are definitely better neo-prog albums, and much better Pendragon albums than this one!