BLACKFIELD

Blackfield is an odd marriage between our hero Steven Wilson and pop-icon Aviv Geffen. The result is surprisingly acceptable, certainly if you consider the kind of drab pop Aviv Geffen usually makes when he hasn't got a genius like Wilson around.

The title track, Glow and Cloudy Now are really strong emotional pop songs. Besides those, there are still plenty other memorable hooks and interesting melodies on offer but overall the album is too monotonous, with songs that are predictable and mellow, not to say cheesy. Basically it's well produced soft-pop without much stamina. I guess it wouldn't even show its teeth if you'd hit it with a stick.

This is nice music but far too mediocre and unchallenging to have any staying power in a proghead's cd-player. On the contrary, if this didn't have Wilson in the credits this album wouldn't be within a million miles of this site.