WORLDS APART

Worlds Apart was Saga's breakthrough album and listening to it now, I can certainly understand why. The songs are catchy and accessible, the production - even if not really my cup of tea - is clearly improved over that of previous albums and the band sounds more confident here than before. Even if the self-titled debut from 1978 already featured all the aspects of the distinctive Saga sound, it wasn't until the present album that the band really "found themselves". They happened to find themselves in a place a little bit further away from progressive Rock, however. I used to have somewhat mixed feelings about this development: On the one hand, Saga were about to close the door on the genre of music that I like the most, but on the other hand they were improving in most other respects. At the end of the day, I have to say that this is a great album even if it was in some ways a step in the wrong direction. I clearly see it's qualities, and I enjoy all of the songs. Indeed, the first six or seven tracks are all time Saga classics and the album as a whole is of course an all time Rock classic despite the relative weakness of the last two tracks.

I think it is fair to say that Worlds Apart was a kind of transitional album for Saga. While being the last album of their early progressive period, it was also, at the same time, the first album in their more "commercial" period. The fantasy-tinged sleeve pictures of the first three albums have here been replaced with an altogether more candid image and the corresponding changes were made in the production and songwriting. This is in many ways a more streamlined Saga. But they did still manage to hold on to Prog here with many short but effective instrumental breaks and powerful guitar and keyboard solos. Worlds Apart was also the last album to feature "chapters" (until 1999 when they picked it up again).

Highly recommended!

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