PARADOX HOTEL

Sorry but what's all the fuss about it?! Ok, some instrumental passages are well performed and also mixed in a remarkable way; nevertheless the present album is a bit disappointing, lacking of immagination and almost emulating - for instance - the melodies of Peter Gabriel (listen to "Jealousy") or those ones in the vein of Yes (listen to "Hit Me With A Hit")...if you start listening to the first song of disc 2 you receive the same impression as above, because their poor music ideas reach the sense of tiredness ( like in the second track of disc 2 entitled "Touch My Heaven")...anyway, except for such major defects , you can discover a few interesting features within ,regarding the harmony, as this latter is mainly composed by Roine Stolte - even though He sometimes plays some passages which could be dedicated to King Crimson (his citation regarding "Larks tongue in Aspic" in the tune "The Unorthodox Dancinglesson" is evident and it's a bit disturbing me, cause the intro of this song finally seems an original compostion by Roine himself!!...): "Life Will Kill You" is a typical example, but at the end you could prefer the soft and pleasant approach of "Man Of The World" or once again the good job at the keyboards of "Pioneers Of Aviation" (coming back to disc 1), which is worth checking out at least... and then?...Is it enough? I don't know, but at the end you could erase an half star from the total score.