LIVE IN MEXICO

With Moon Safari having consolidated their shift of sound from the 1970's Symphonic influenced Prog of their beginnings to the more modern style of Lover's End and Himlabacken, this their 2nd live album concentrates completely in this last period's music, not featuring any songs from their 2 first albums. Nothing wrong with it, while some people may find their latest releases a bit too 'poppy', there is a lot of quality and good taste in their recent music, perhaps hidden in the sweet and accessible melodies and arrangements, which need some uninhibited listens to reveal their beauty, and in any case the song selection here focusses on the most Proggy side of it.

The album was recorded during their performance at the Baja Prog Festival and drummer Tobias Lundgren who was at the time expecting a child with his wife was replaced by Mikael Israelsson who does a very good job. The band sounds better live than what I have heard in previous performances, the accumulated experience is showing up, and they seem to be a bit more daring in their playing and singing arrangements. We get 2 songs which were already present in their previous live 'The Gettysburg Address', 'A Kid Called Panic' and 'Heartland' from Lover's End, but for the rest all are songs which had not been released live yet.

The album starts with 'Too Young To Say Goodbye', one of the highlights from Himlabacken, followed by the great 'Heartland', played a bit slower than in the 'Gettysburg' gig. 'Barfly' and 'Mega Moon' from Himlabacken follow, showing the more modern approach with strong Innuendo-era Queen influences. Yes, more 'poppy' but great songs anyway and 'Mega Moon' at nearly 9 minutes can hardly be called a pop song, and the many vocal layers are nicely performed live.

'A Kid Called Panic' was also already included in 'Gettysburg' but it's such a nice song that I don't mind having it again. Then comes one of my favourite songs of Lover's End, 'Crossed The Rubicon', 11 minutes of bliss where they show once more that their multi-vocal talents are not just a thing of the studio. So glad that they have released this great song in a live album.

The closing epic this time is 'Lover's End Part III: Skelleftea Serenade', it's also very nice that they included this wonderful 25 minute piece in the setlist. A proof that Moon Safari are still to be considered as a true Prog band, despite those who may be despising them for becoming too accessible, sweet or cheesy. No Sirs, Moon Safari are a true Prog Rock band, they just do it their own way in the 2010's and that's a good thing. Their music is best enjoyed in studio recordings, but it's nice to hear that they call pull it our nicely in live performances too.