FOUR DAISIES

Un arc dans le Ciel - the positive: excellent use of wind instruments, decent guitar work. the negative: pedestrian drum line that almost never changes course and a sort of Flock of Seagulls-ish sound creeps in on occasion with the keyboard play

Four Daisies - they are still spot on with the use of the wind instruments on this song and I can't complain about the level of skill involved in the bands play but, that being said, this is not a track that can grab you in with its virtuosity and hold your attention. Seems to be musical potential here but the composition doesn't match it. The singing doesn't do much other than confirming that this, indeed, is a 1980s release.

Evelyn - Ok, here we go, the highlight track so far. For the first 3 minutes you will get soft and vulnerable vocals with the music swimming around it to a great balanced effect. From 3 minutes on the song ascends into a fast paced rocker only slowing to frame some excellent sax work.

When you're Right - I have trouble describing tracks that have nothing either exceptionally bad or good about them. The music is well played but it isn't particularly interesting with the exception of the softer sections. I do not own any of their follow up albums but I would be interested in seeing if they decided to scrap the poor drum lines and heavier bits in favor of the very beautiful style the display in the softer moments of this album (which are sadly few and far between). This song really goes through the motions after the 8:30 mark, I'm not sure where they were trying to go with it and for some reason I doubt they knew either. All over the place is a reasonable guess.

Stories of a Lake (Bonus Track) - If I could get my attention away from the nauseously repetitive drumming and bass work then you might have a nice little rock song here, maybe.

Not having heard ARCANSIEL's slightly higher rated follow up album, Still Searching, I don't know where the band took their sound after this album but my hope is that they let someone else pen the tunes and either let the drummer out of his box or canned him all together (though I'd rather think that his not doing much isn't his fault). While listening to this I thought about what could have been had someone wise stepped in and told them how beautiful the rare softer moments were and how pedestrian everything else was. As for a rating: If there is anyone out there interested in hearing unfullfilled potential then this is your album. This is for fans only.