SILENT CRIES AND MIGHTY ECHOES

Oh my, oh my... Just when I finished praising "Ocean" in my previous review here, I stumbled upon their next album "Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes". There are two things about this album that stand for me the most.

First, the sound and style is almost the same as on the previous "Ocean". The formula was successful, so why not repeat it? Fair enough; we should not blame ELOY for something that many, if not the majority of, rock bands in this period did on a regular basis.

Second, as if I could hear Bornemann and his company saying: "Hmmm, they accuse us of imitating Pink Floyd too much in the past!? OK, then let's give them those mighty Floyds in abundance on this new album!" And they did just that. The seventh ELOY album is saturated with Floydian references from almost all their albums between "Atom Heart Mother" and "Animals", and this is especially evident on side A. Only "Master of Sensation" track stands out a bit, and it is really one of better and signature compositions by ELOY.

B side tries to offer more of their own true spirit, but the problem is that we have heard all these ideas in a better form on "Ocean" and even "Dawn". The closing "Mighty Echoes" tries, after several more Floydesque noodlings, to finish the album on a grand note and it succeeds in it only partially. So, if this is supposed to belong to something called "progressive rock", then I have an issue with that. There is no much progress going here; and given that ELOY looks often more to the past (both their own and of other famous Brit rock acts like PF) than to the present or future, I can only call this "regressive rock", if that makes any sense.

But, my misgivings notwithstanding, I have to emphasise again that this album is very nicely performed and produced and the band deserves a hats off for that. It is listenable and catchy music, so it kind of makes my guilty pleasure. Still, I cannot say that this album makes an "excellent addition" to a truly "progressive rock" collection.