THE FINAL CURTAIN

I have several of the early recordings by Beggar's Opera. They are great and especially Pathfinder is a true masterpiece. As I found out that there is a new album by the band (and someone has given it a five) I offcourse had to get hold on to it. I have seldom been more dissapointed!

As you check the line-up you see that there are only three members in the band and only two are from the old setup. Gone is Martin Griffiths and his vocals that was a very important part of the band's overall appeal. Gone are also Ricky Gardiner with his guitar and the drummer Ray Wilson. Gone is also the songwriting of Gardiner and Griffiths that gave us most of the immortal music of the old BO.

One of the most remarkable things that affect this music is that Ray is substituted by a drum synthetizer. And a poor one. This reminds me lively the first pathetic efforts with midi and Sound Blaster. How about the songs here. The music is cheap. It is some kind of hit music, only. Maybe some sort of disco music. Even here this record is a failure. The sounds are so weak. It remains me a total mystery why this record was ever made? Is this really the same Alan Park? Did he get some money from this? Where did he lose his self respect?

One star is too much for this humiliation of a legendary band but as zero is not an option I'll give 1 star!