CORVUS STONE

Corvus Stone is among those CDs that I bought, listened to, but couldn't get emotionally involved enough to form a coherent opinion or to write a review.

However, lately there has been quite a bit of buzz about Corvus Stone and some of its members, so I thought it wouldn't be inappropriate to weigh in so as to add my take on this interesting band and its first album.

The first impression: the very pleasant cover art by the talented Ms. Sonia Mota (who has already immortalized herself in the hearts and minds of the PA collabs). It's such a shame Corvus Stone is not available on vinyl; I'd buy it for the album art only (unless they ask more than $20.00).

The following impressions aren't quite as positive. Overall, it feels like a series of studio demos by a bunch of reasonably competent players, meant to demonstrate their music-makingl skills. None of the 21 tracks feels like a self-sufficient, whole "song" in the prog sense. Which makes them somewhat boring.

The singing is kind of average, but that's the unfortunate characteristic of very many prog albums. Thankfully, the album is largely instrumental, which kind of mitigates the damage, done by its mediocre vocals. The musicianship, as noted above, is OK, but not outstanding.

Style-wise, Corvus Stone is kind of demo-like as well: it's like the musicians are saying, See, we can play a little bit of this and a little bit of that. As an album, Corvus Stone doesn't seem to be going anywhere particular, other than announcing the new band to the public.

If not for the album art, this would be 2.5 stars.