BLACK MOON

Lots of changes abound in "Black Moon", but most painful is the odd shift in timbre of Lake's voice, which went from positively beautiful to husky and mediocre. What happened? He scarcely sounds like the same person. More disconcerting is the shift in songwriting to a much more accessible, almost radio-friendly sound; gone are the sweeping compositions and exciting instrumentals... there is very little to get excited about here, but not a lot to be disgusted with. They band still plays well, but they could have stirred up the creative juices a little more to give us something worthwhile-- even within the short, song-based framework they decided to record this one in.

Songwriting: 2 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 2 Style/Emotion/Replay: 1