I ME MYSELF

Well, here is one of the great symphonic prog bands of this millennium. I had huge expectations for this release as I had considered each of their previous 2 releases 5 star albums. And I must say, the band's compositional skills and musicianship remain at their peak. Just fantastic- nobody does it better than Roberto Diaz, Virginia Peraza, and the rest of the instrumentalists.

So why only 4 stars? Obviously, it's the new vocalist, Two albums ago, they had Carlos Sosa on vocals, and he was perfect on "The Way". On the last album, "The Lamplighter" they had Emmanuel Pirko Farrath, and although he sang with a rather thick accent, his voice was rich and warm and fit the music well. Now we have "I Me Myself" and another new vocalist, Michel Bermudez. I find Bermudez' voice not only heavily accented, but also somewhat irritating. Especially when he is singing in a high pitch, which is most tracks except the closer, "Lone Rider", on which he is quite listenable. And although the lyrics are in English, hardly a word is understandable.

So here we have an album that could probably qualify for 6 stars musically, but I am bringing it down to 4 for the generally annoying vocals. The redeeming thing is that there are quite a few extended instrumental passages which are just a joy to hear. Oh, to have Carlos Sosa back singing on this album would have made it a truly exceptional album.

Well, here it is August 20, and after several months of repeated listens, I am raising my rating to 5 stars. My reason is that the vocals are now much less objectionable(except for maybe "Flowers"), and the music is so fantastic so that it cannot warrant less than 5 stars.