10.000 DAYS

10,000 Days stands out as a refreshing piece of work from a band that ( to me ) has been a bit repetitive as of late. The album overall has a clean , well balanced sound to it with excellent audio clarity and strong vocals . Saga blasts out the gate with Lifeline. A nice start to the album, it has a sound to it that is recognized as Saga right away and gives one a good idea of what to expect as they progress through this album. A great guitar/ synth leadout on the back of the song. 4 stars Book Of Lies is a somewhat quirky but hard hitting song that ,once again, has some great instrumental interplay laced throughout it. Especially nice guitar work. Definitely not a letdown. One of those songs that grows on you. 4 stars Sideways, to me, is the best song on the piece. Starts off with what can only be described as something that reminds one of early Yes, ala Fragile. It then quickly changes to an excellent balanced piece of beautiful vocal harmonics with superb electronic chops thrown in to give it some edge. It just has that sound to it that reaches out and grabs you. Or, at least, me. 5 stars. Can You See Me Now? A great song with some heavy guitar work in it and the Saga trademark vocals and chorus. Not filler by any means. 4 stars Next up is Corkentellis, an instrumental that is fantastic. Nice loud, clear synth work with some good raw gutar interplay. Not instantly recognizable as Saga to me. Reminds me of something from earlier Styx, ala Grand Illusion. Not to take anything away from Saga- this is great stuff. 5 stars. More than I Deserve is the track that lets me down on this album. Slow, mellow and not very catchy. Sound like alot of other Saga that I don't really like too much. Just kind of blaa to me. Sorry, guys. 2 stars Back to form with Sound Advice. A good song that sounds alot like Saga from the previous albums of Trust or Network. Good sraightforward rock. 3 stars 10, 000 days is a track that is good but not great to me. Tells a good story and has good vocal chorus but kind of has too much sameness to it. 3 stars Last track, Never Ends is sweet. Great keyboards again with upfront presence mixed so well with guitar. 4 stars. A good solid bookend to a Saga release that I think is one of their top 3 or 4 attempts. I would welcome more of this anytime. Michael will be missed but, hopefully, the band will continue to move ahead in his absence.