SOUNDS THAT CAN'T BE MADE

I cannot listen to this album one more time. After numerous increasingly unsatisfactory listens, I spent last several nights listening to it carefully with my headphones, trying to pick any hidden treasures. To no avail. Pieces are artifically elongated, musically poor (lyrics even poorer), formulaic (almost all pieces start slow and you know crescendo is coming but when it comes, it's just loud without a memorable melody, no particular harmony). It is not bad in the sense that it is too "poppy" (except for "Pour My Love" - simply unlistenable) but it just is a wall of sound, almost uniform throughout the album. Sounds that should not have been made (sorry, couldn't resist). Where is Rothery's guitar? Pete's bass? All blended into a fog of sound. I have never liked Hogarth's voice; but when the music was good, it didn't bother me much. I can certainly enjoy many songs since Seasons' End as late as Marbles. But, in this album, there is simply too much Hogarth for my liking. His interpretive skills are limited; the guttural passages or plaintive tones are truly painful to my ears. Final word on lyrics: a song about minutiae of their trip to Montreal is not my idea of good lyrics. Congratulations to Marillion on having the guts to write something about Gaza but again lyrics fall way short of their intentions; "just ain't right," really? This album just ain't right for me. If you like Hogarth, you might tolerate it better and perhaps find few more enjoyable passages than I was able to.