THE HUMAN CONDITION

To get it out of the way: Saga have a new singer, Rob Morrati, who finds himself in the difficult situation of replacing Michael Sadler. Well, he doesn't sound like his predecessor, more like your average AOR singer (take Styx' Dennis De Young and you get the idea). I don't have a problem with that, in fact I think he does a good job here and I do not envy him, because every Saga Fan will blame him if they do not like the current album.

However, I don't think, that he is the problem. According to the promotion texts I read about it, the album was supposed to be more progressive than Saga's previous efforts, but it is not. This is not, because the singer fails and it is not because Saga forgot how to play their instruments. The singer is fine, and the soloing, especially Ian Crichton's guitarplay, is quite impressive, as usual. The problem here is the lack of any new idea. Nearly any song could be a leftover from "Trust" or "10000 days", the last one "You look good to me" is a terrible mix-up of "Take a chance" (from "Behaviour") and "You're not alone" (from "Images at Twilight). At best "The human condition" is quite entertaining ("Crown of thorns", "Let it go"), and I find myself listening to it and not feel the urge to turn it off, but it lacks inspiration and simply isn't very interesting.

I have trouble rating this, so I will go song by song: The human condition - 7 minute instrumental, weaker than Corkentells or even Conversation from Worlds apart = 2 Step inside - okay Pop Song = 2 Hands of time - the unavoidable ballad, nice guitar sounds in the end, but no surprises here = 2 Avalon - I know two songs by the same title (by Roxy Music and Threshold), both are better. Very strange song, a weirdly uplifting hymn like verse, I really don't know whether I like it or not, so for making me confused it gets a 3. A number with a name - bears a striking resemblance to several songs on the previous two albums, guitar - keyboard interplay is old school Saga, but interesting piano interlude after three minutes = 2 Now is now - sounds like a Styx Song from the eighties, would have been a 3 twentyfive years ago, today = 1 Let it go - good Rock Song, but nothing special = 3 Crown of thorns - I like this one, one or two unexpected turns, all in all quite energetic, bordering on Metal, one minute less would have been better = 4 You look good to me - as mentioned above, I really hate this one. Obviously it was written for a live audience, it even has a short Clap along part, but for what, when you have an audience, rightfully demanding You're not alone instead of this? - 0

Overall Rating = 2