A GOLDEN DREAM

When I bought this album I somehow knew I was descending to the dungeons of neo prog. This is not really psychic of me because this band is already on our site for several years and received just one rating on three albums in those years. I wonder why ? Not really unlogical to think we are dealing with an inferior band here. I don't want to be disresepctful to my German neighbours but this band or at least this album is really below par in practically every department. The production is poor (thinnish sound), the bands sound is shy and amateurish. The title track gets a sort of sweet atmosphere because of this mainly thanks to the female vocals. And if I say this track is probably the best (least poor) of the album and gets about 2 stars at best I think the story is just about told here. The only other track that is slightly worth while is A Fairy Tale with some nice flute. Worst of all tracks is A final Song in which the band suggests they are succesfully touring through Europe with gigs in a.o. Cardiff and Stuttgart. I'd say keep dreaming, I don't think this tour has ever occurred. I witnessed bands myself in those days that were ten times better than Bel Air and didn't get any crowds at all so I'm not buying this. Another strange aspect is that the language on this album is half English and half German. This very unusual, I'm not saying it's forbidden but it makes a very strange impression on me. And when they sing English it's with a terrible accent.

I could do a song by song review but to be honest I don't feel like it, besides: the scores would vary from 1 to 1,75 stars in almost all cases so that's not very useful. I'm usually not that harsh in my reviews but in fact it's not strange that this happens right now. It's like life itself, there will always be winners and losers; not every album on this site can be good enough for 3,4 or 5 stars. And in this way this album also has a purpose: by listening to this you realize what (prog)music can also be like. Like this obviously and then you appreciate the really good albums the more, after hearing this. Anyway, I can do no better than 1 star I'm afraid. Not recommended unless you can bear just about all neo prog and are not choosy at all.