HABITAT

This is American band MAN ON FIRE's third studio album. They've scored a couple of special guests in Adrian Belew (KING CRIMSON) and David Ragsdale (KANSAS). Maybe it's just me but I think this record would sound better without Ragsdale's contributions because the violin parts are so boring, nothing like his seventies KANSAS days that's for sure. This is a concept album that runs almost 69 minutes. Lots of samples on this album mostly to start or end a track.

"The Block" is a song I was already familiar with from a sampler cd I think. It really gives you a clear picture of the band's sound if you've heard it before although this song is clearly a top two track on here. Lots of energy and very expressive. The samples are kind of cool as the first track ends with street noise, sirens and a dog barking. I'm not going to go through each track but one other song that I like as much as the first one if not more is "Broken". A door opens to start then the music comes in. Synths are spacey and there's a beat. Violin before the vocals arrive. Just a great sounding track.

Unfortunately for my tastes there are too few of these moments let alone songs, so 3 stars feels right to me.