MOONSHINE

5 stars is completely inadequate for this album. I had never heard Polish band Collage until I found this album on youtube and I only had to listen to it twice to know I had to own it and it arrived today. It's slightly dreamy and relaxing and simply incredibly beautiful. It easily makes my top 10 albums of all time. The album is supremely melodic and beautifully played. Robert Arminian gives a vocal performance to rival any other singer in prog, Mirek Gil has a very unusual style and guitar tone and contributes some superb solos, mostly towards the top of the fretboard. Krzysztof Palczewski's keyboards are wonderful, adding atmosphere and melody and bassist Piotr Mitlowski and drummer Wojtek Szadkowski form a mighty rhythm section. Others have described each track in detail, so I won't repeat their analysis. All I'll say is that there are no bad or mediocre tracks whatsoever; indeed every one is a gem. Heroes Cry and Living in the Moonlight would easily grace any "Best of Prog" album and the others are not far behind. But the highlight is the beautiful finale, War is Over, one of the most uplifting songs ever. If only the chorus were true. The final touch of genius is the fade out with mandolin and accordion. And the word "uplifting" characterises this album perfectly: there's nothing dark or depressive about it, and that suits me fine. This rivals any of the many superb albums by IQ, Marillion, Arena, Pendragon and Pallas in the realms of neo-prog, yet stylistically is distinct from all of them. They've clearly listened to those bands and extracted the best from all of them to distil into something new and glorious. Some have described it as "poppy", but having a memorable melody does not make anything "poppy". Unhesitatingly recommended to anyone who likes any of those bands.