SCARSICK

This is the third time I try to write this review. Over the past years PoS are growing rapidly in me and I still need time to understand them. BE is a masterpiece, so are the previous albums. Remedy Lane is deep in my heart and I am sure that it will never leave. It is just the simple straightforward way that PoS music and lyrics speak inside you. I believe that their success lays in their ability to pass you the message of their thoughts. And they use innovative music to achieve this. But this album is different.

Maybe their music is the reason that this band has a place here. And many people especially prog fans labeled Scarsick as "simple and naive" only for the music. They didn't like the new elements (disco). After a couple of hearings I agreed with them. And if your main concern is the music you will be disappointed, especially for a PoS album. But let's not forget that music is the means to the message contained in the lyrics. Many prog bands of the past used simpler music to pass the idea of the words. And if you read the lyrics everything changes. You discover feelings.

The music is simpler because the feelings have come to the surface: Anger, disgust, lust, hopelessness, sadness, hope. This album focuses on the lyrics. And the lyrics are like a fist in your mouth. They make a lot of people, especially a lot of their fans unhappy and angry. Why? Because you disagree with them. Because you feel offended. Because some words spoke of the sad truth inside of all of us. Maybe you think that this is a "YOU" album. The truth is that this is a "WE" album. PoS are (scar) sick of all the things that surround them and us. Things that are part of us, of the modern world. The American way of our life, the popstars, the posers, the politics, the consumerism and the capitalism, sex and crime, inhumanity, everything is here. They don't say something new if your eyes and ears are open but at least they succeed in making you think. In every song, PoS use the music style that fits to the theme of the lyrics (disco, rap, pop-rock). And in their last songs where exists the true meaning of this, they use their known style. That's how they perfectly dressed it up.

It is a common reaction for some people to try to find the hidden motives of the artist. To criticize him for being just another part of the machine. I don't know if PoS thought that now they have the means to pass their manifesto or just bark to be in fashion. To be honest I don't care and I would like to focus at the lyrics itself because that is what they delivered to us. I TOTALLY agree with PoS in all their concerns. They passed their current thoughts to the music and their lyrics. Their message is clear to me. This is a deep album, far beyond the "parental guidance" label in the front cover.

If we are to review an album for the message in it, then this is Album of the month, of the year perhaps. On the other hand this is a progressive music site and the review must be made as for the prog part and for the music too. So maybe this review and this rating doesn't belong here for I decided to give it 5 stars. This is how I feel. PoS did it again in a new way. It just takes some time...