CERULEAN BLUE

Do you remember the first time you heard one of your favorite albums from the Golden Age of Prog? Do you remember the sense of wonder you had when you realized that a band could sound like that or play like that? I think this is the key to the warm reception that Cerulean Blue has met with here. Not only is Rain one of the relatively few artists who is making music in the vein of the best of prog rock from the Golden Age, he has also managed to capture the sense of wonder that few bands since that time have been able to recreate. That's the key there: somewhere in this grand story of a search to understand a man is the grandeur and wonder we found in Rael's wanderings or in the bombastics of Keith Emerson's keyboards or Jon Anderson's vague and spacey lyrics. I can't in good conscience give this 5 stars; it's not a masterpiece save in the sense that I can think of no other album that packs so much concept into so little space. 4 stars it is, but is also one of only a handful of albums so far in this century to truly capture the spirit of the Golden Age of Prog Rock.