REVOLUTION ROAD

Revolution Road garnered many very favorable reviews after it was released, some of them so effusive that you just had to look into it. I was a bit skeptical and went for the $10 download off iTunes and am glad I didn't pay full freight for the double CD. Of course when you see some very well respected sites giving out perfect scores for Snakes and Arrows and 10010110, you realize that you have to take everything with a grain of salt.

This album is prog by the numbers and is a double album that falters under its own weight. I am a fan of double albums and rarely say they should be cut down. This one should have but not because of weak and strong tracks. It is more because the whole thing really does not have enough variety to keep your attention. Erik Norlander is a talented man but he and his mates just went overboard here with the formula. The keyboard leads all have the same tone. The tempo varies little. The vocals are kind of grating after a while. The ballad-y songs are nothing special. The gimmicky songs wear thin fast. There are good moments and songs that get your feet tapping. There are some nice melodies. They occasionally have a metal edge that can be pleasant. The production and playing are all well done. But after several listens, I just have an empty feeling after every one. And sitting through the last song, a 13-minute mid-tempo instrumental does nothing to fill that emptiness.

I have not heard any other full albums from the band but this style may be for fans of The Moody Blues or maybe Saga. Norlander flexes his keyboard chops here to quite an extent, but it is the song writing that holds this one back. I had high hopes going in and from the little I had heard from Norlander and Lana Lane thought this was sure to be a winner. But instead I am waffling between 2 and 3 stars. I suppose it falls closer to other 3 star albums I have reviewed than the 2 star ones, so we will go with 3.