MAD AS A HATTER

As far as Clive Nolan's side projects outside of Pendragon go, I've always preferred Arena to Shadowland - and listening to Mad as a Hatter, it sounds like Clive was inclined to agree by this point! The album steers directly for the rather darker and more complex musical territory occupied by Arena and leans away from the sunnier and lighter material of the previous two Shadowland albums, but it doesn't quite succeed - the production values are not what they could be, the songwriting isn't particularly interesting, and on the whole I can't help but wonder whether Clive was holding his best song ideas back for the next Arena album.