MOONSHINE

This is the stuff I imagine accompanying Siegfried & Roy's act during their mid-90s Vegas glory; lots of mist, flashbangs, sampled orchestration, glitter suits, and over-groomed homoerotic showmanship. Liberace would've liked Collage.

That aside, it is what it is. Distended by melodrama and artifice, Moonshine is symphonic rock (okay "Neoprog" if you insist) at its worst and best. The material does sometimes remind of Genesis circa 1976 but not really, and frankly fourteen-minute 'In Your Eyes' is why pop music was invented. No one needs to sit through a quarter hour of unremarkable music. Cut it by two thirds and you might have something worthwhile. Just ask Peter Gabriel. 'Living in the Moonlight' is moany '80s romantic angst and 'The Blues' is merely an extension of said material. Complex 'Wings in the Night' isn't bad but at eleven minutes is sure to leave many listeners trailing off into what they're having for dinner, and the cinematic title track is probably the most progressive thing here with many rises and falls.

A matter of taste perhaps but either way, Collage lacks a certain humanity; a rock & roll spirit that thrives on less, not more; a blemished swagger raised to glory by the skill and inspiration of men, not machines. But then one can't blame an artist for what it is they do, only the quality of it.