NEW WORLD

93/100 Bumble bees, dragonflies, and dark drum thunder. Welsh witch ghost blends in with greenery of the scenery, weighed down by a heavy pecan harvest and a nude descending a staircase canopy, floating down a river past sun spangled Elysian Fields , and I'm not talking about a tiny sleepy east Texas town, although we know that honeysuckled hamlet has contributed it's share of amazing human beings and farm animals to Earth's awesome story, no I speak of sacred Shangri-La bewitching elysian fields.

Complaints? I O Earth doesn't let me up for air. She drowns me. Cloaked and robed, shaved priests cram velvet marmalade into my mummy hole, along with myrrh, hooded snake, hippopotamus ,thyme and sublime odd time signatures. Speckled and bejeweled, I O Earth's- New World is a Maryjane Kay Pink in the cheeks thing. Oooohhh! She spanks like the Dicken's. That interlude in Oliver twists up inside her diamond tiara, mascara, pearl drops and devil dew dripping on her moon shine liquor. Oooo Cleo, wet in the star shine. Yeti, ye...yet,

like ancient Egypt I O Earth's New World suffers from the Moses Syndrome. Similar to the Red Sea fiasco, IO Earth should have split the album. But no! After listening to Close to the Edge, Thick as a Brick, and an unusually bossy burning bush, Moses hikes up the mountain and comes down a month later, bearing a prog masterpiece, , only to find his people in a drunken orgy dancing in 4/4 time around a golden calf, purchased on Ebay. Any prophet would be pissed, so he threw down the prog masterpiece and it broke in half, and became New World. Next time Moses brought down the Ten Commandments. And oh boy! That brought us all down. Sequels suck!

I O Earth should have recorded a double CD. Too much bliss for a masochist to listen to a once. I had to adapt. 100 minutes of uninterrupted serenity was too much for mortal man to bare New World made me face my fear of pleasure and embrace, a new century prog renaissance masterpiece. At first I couldn't comprehend it. It was as if, I yearned and pined for an exotic teapot. So, I hurriedly drove a hour north up interstate-35 to "Topeka Teapot" -Biggest Teapot Warehouse in the World! Bigger than Topeka Kansas! Jade teapots, porcelain teapots, cubistic tea, ivory tea...My Umpa Lumpa Utopia! Too many choices. I was overwhelmed by the New World. A triple album soaked in surreal aural moonshine! Yet, part of me wanted to pretend I didn't hear it. It would be so much easier to sift thru panned-out rivers for fools gold. I couldn't deny it. The New World is- a shiny masterpiece, golden molten, forged in Super nova fire. If there was a prog sub genre called... World Prog. I O Earth would wear the crown!

5 Crowns Royals for New World

PS. My sweet grandmother taught me...If you can't say anything nice... Don't even open your mouth! So, I mainly review 5 star masterpieces. I rate plenty of *, **, ***. and **** star albums. I rate 'em but I don't review them. Beauty inspires me! Insipid and mediocre... not so much. I don't review albums with over 987 ratings. Enough said, besides Prog Archives warns me to think twice before giving "masterpiece status" to any album. Collaborators are wise musicophiles. I deeply respect the collaborator opinions, as I wait like an eight year old for Christmas, for the Collaborator's annual best of list. Yet, I can't help believe that recent Italian prog renaissance and whatever kind of prog you want to call I O Earth, IQ, Steven Wilson, Barock Project, Leprous, Riverside, 3rDegree, and Anekdoten...Whatever you want to call it...We are NOT in a drought anymore! These are the good old days. Golden days for progressive rock. 2015 marks the cross hairs of a prog rock bulls-eye! So forgive me if I give I-owe-earth five golden stars.