MOONSHINE

I have almost nothing to add to Verisimilitude's review, which is about as spot-on as any I've read for any album on the site. I agree with it in its entirety, right down to liking Clepsydra's "Alone" a little more than this album (even though I gave both the same basic "star" rating). Clepsydra has the same overall "bombastic" sound as Collage, but does far more with it (and has much better vocals). Because although Collage is a highly technically proficient group of musicians, and the vocalist is better than some I've heard, the album ultimately leaves me "flat"; Collage is not "saying anything new" and, indeed, as Verisimilitude astutely points out, they sound like some really great prog musicians who were thrown together to have an overblown prog jam session (though, admittedly, some of the "jams" have some real structure to them). I also agree with Verisimilitude that the level of playing makes up (at least somewhat) for the lack of direction - which is the only reason I gave this album three stars (it actually deserves two-and-a-half). Definitely worth a listen, but not a "keeper" unless you are truly into heavily bombastic, often aimless, if well-played, prog. (As an aside, I never realized how influential Genesis' "Wind & Wuthering" and "And Then There Were Three" were to neo-prog, especially vis-a-vis production quality: no less than four neo-prog bands I have listened to and reviewed in the past three weeks were clearly influenced by one or both of those albums.)