LOVE, FEAR AND THE TIME MACHINE

As a long time admirer of Poland's premier progressive band it is with great sadness that I review their latest offering 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine'. When Mariusz Duda announced Riverside was abandoning the heavy guitar riffs and sounds and his goal was according to a recent interview in Billboard magazine to make a positive and upbeat album I approached this album with a certain trepidation. Evolution and change in a musical band can be either a good or bad thing, the key to me is does the band still stay true to its musical roots. Genesis, with the departure of Steve Hachett abandoned theirs while I feel Opeth's current album 'Pale Communion' has not lost the magic from 'Ghost Reveries' while changing and evolving.

With that in mind, I have to say Riverside has succeeded in their goal of making a positive, upbeat album that is a good to great pop rock album but in no way would I call this album progressive in any way as a 40 year fan of progressive music understands the term. 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' is power ballads interspersed with straight ahead love songs. A friend of mine when I was first listening to the album on release date said to me do not listen to it as a Riverside album just as another progressive album. That advice changed my entire perspective. Initially, I was enjoying the music as I felt is was not as bad as I feared having listened to a couple of prereleased tracks. However, once I approached the album as just another progressive album the wind went out of my sails. 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' still has Mariusz's great vocals and bass but the album left me feeling it was rather boring and missing that certain magic that Riverside always had. This album has much more in common with Mariusz Duda's latest solo project Lunatic Soul's 'Walking On A Flashlight Beam' then the last Riverside album. 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' feels like a pop version of 'Flashlight Beam' with much greater focus on vocals and more simplistic song structure than 'Flashlight Beam' or any previous Riverside album. Rating this album is very difficult. As a stand alone album is succeeds as a pop rock album but as a progressive rock album it just is not that good. One need only listen to the ninth track "Time Travellers" to understand the change in Riverside. It is beautiful love song but that is all it is.

As this is a progressive music forum my rating and summation of 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' is I can finally understand how long time Genesis fans felt when 'And Then There Was Three' was released. It was the beginning of the great commercial success of Genesis but they left behind their progressive beginnings to get there and unfortunately, 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' may be the end of the progressive era of Riverside only time and the next album will tell. I predict 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' will be the greatest success Riverside has ever enjoyed but I will mourn the loss of a truly great modern progressive and innovative band.

As a straight rock album, I would rate 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine' at 4.5 stars and a progressive album I would rate it 2 stars and that is unfortunately being generous.