THE TIME IT TAKES

I am having trouble with this album as each time I hear it my reaction seems to ping pong from liking it to disliking it for the familiarity it evokes in me. The music is very pleasant, it's engaging, and the musicianship and recording are very well done. My problem is the lead singer's similarity to LEVEL 42 lead singer/bassist, Mark King. No, it's more than that. The Mark King similarities bleed over into much more of the music--the bass playing (it's wonderful and very accomplished), and the song structures and stylings also keep taking me back to LEVEL 42 and other bands like THE TANGENT, THE STYLE COUNCIL, JAMES GRANT/LOVE AND MONEY, PHIL COLLINS and other pseudo- or neo-prog bands (all of whom I like very well). I'm more of the type of music listener who likes to be surprised, who likes fresh new sounds and ideas, who likes innovation, originality and bands that "push the envelope" of previously heard and established song styles and sounds. My usual reaction to Neo Prog and what I call "pseudo prog" is usually that none of the above is happening. Don't get me wrong: There is fine musicianship being captured here! And very nice songs with a lot of GENESIS/PHIL COLLINS/SPOCK'S BEARD-like structures and dynamics but, again, like so much of Neo Prog, it's all too polished, too clean, too contrived and somehow lacking emotion or 'soul.' Hence, I just can't give this wonderful, beautiful collection of well-polished songs anything more than four stars. I feel badly but, like most anything I hear of Spock's Beard, Marillion, IQ, The Tangent or The Flower Kings, this rather nice music is rather quickly forgotten and left behind in favor of something . . . fresher . . . and meatier.

Great songs: "Waiting for the Bell to Toll" (11:20) (9/10); "The Path to My House" (4:33) (9/10).

Very good songs: "River So Wide" (6:23) (8/10); "In Close Proximity" (6:27) (8/10); "Sound Behind Sound" (7:37) (8/10).