A PLACE IN THE QUEUE

This is one of my favorite releases on this side of the millenium. The Tangent came out of nowhere from me, after hearing of them on this site I decided to give them a try. I was unable to find Not as Good as the Book and had to make due with this album. Not knowing that fate had played a wonderful trick on me.

The Tangent play a sort of juicy 70's Progrock coupled with tons of other influences from Blues to Fusion, that in my ears is close to as good as it gets. The clean, clear mixing of this album is really to be commended, it's like a 70's album born again in the year 2000!

So, what can be said about the music on this particular album? The opening track In Earnest is what can only be discribed as a Progressive Godzilla sifting through genres as another does a newspaper as it tells the tale of an old man and his life. A truly fantastic song, which almost makes me want to use the dreaded word epic, a masterpiece in so many ways. After being blown to bits by the opener, I was uncertain as how this album would be able to follow up such a grand entrance. Rest assured though, it does not get worse.

The song Lost in London follows with a more low key tone. A brilliantly composed and performed song, carying on the great songwriting from the opening while maintaining the personal and story oriented lyrics. I have something against rating each song by themselves, as I don't think any proper album can be judged song by song. I'll sum up the following songs with Holy cow this is so awesome, I can't believe they still are able to surprise and please me like this, this is like hot chocolate in front of a fire place while it's snowing outside. And I mean that from the heart.

This albums is essential in any progfan's collection. A modern masterpiece!

5/5