LA ESTACIÓN DE LOS SUEÑOS

Medina Azahara is a place near Córdoba (Andalusia) where the Arabs had a huge palace built in the tenth century. This band, originating from Córdoba choose this name to show its roots and has often integrated Oriental influences in their music throughout a long and prolific career.

To be honest, there were much more downs than ups in their discography. The proghead should only bother with their first two albums, which are on the symphonic side as well as with ''En Al-Hakim''.

Most of their work is just straight Spanish pop-rock. At times tinted with a harder sound (''XX''). It is again the situation with ''La Estación De Los Sueños''. The opener was a good surprise though (but short): fine Middle-Eastern influence could have lead to a work in the vein of ''En Al- Hakim'', but it won't be the case, unfortunately.

Still, this album is substantially better than their last several poor albums (''Aixa'', ''Tierra De Libertad'' and ''Tanger'' which I all rated with one star). Some flamenco oriented vocals during ''Niña Dime Tú'' and ''Sólo Momentos'' are bringing these songs into good territories but several tunes are really painful (the AOR ''Al Diablo Con El Cielo, the pop ''Sólo Soy Un Tonto'').

A true prog feel I don't have while listening to this album, and it won't reconcile me with the band. This hard to even metal Spanish rock is not appealing to my ears. And believe me: I have desperately tried all of their records so far (which means a total of twelve albums). As usual, some very good guitar breaks are highlighting average songs and only therefore, I will rate this work with two stars. Nothing too important is featured on this album to be honest. Like during many other ones.