ASYLUM

I have to agree with Thomas and the 3.5 star rating here. Of their 80's albums this is a top three for me but I have this thing against double concept albums because rarely has there been one that is consistent. And this one is all over the place with some real highs and well some head scratching material as well. A popular subject is mental illness with PINK FLOYD and SUPERTRAMP already mining this theme. So as you can imagine this is dark and insane at times with some nursery rhyme-like stuff and Ka-Spel offers up quite the vocal display at times playing this lunatic. I certainly get the appeal, especially in 1985 when the music world was sliding down this slope at this point, but thankfully there was lots of Avant, Zeuhl and Metal as the 80's played out.

Sure the fake drums and electronic beats scream the eighties and are so unappealing but I know this band pretty good and I'm really impressed with the ideas and sound. A six piece here with five of them playing keyboards plus the violin is often upfront from Patrick Q and the guitar was a nice surprise. Lots of haunting, experimental and "out there" music here and as it plays out our subject is getting worse and worse until we are in cuckoo land by the final track. Some bizarre material here but again adventerous and entertaining is the way I look at it. One of the members of this lineup is a female singer like on 1984's "The Tower" but a different vocalist.

Man this is so much better than 90% of the music coming out at this time but in my world this is not a 4 star album but lots of respect for this release from yours truly.