I A M

Funny how I just finished my Pain of Salvation's BE and I got the urge to jump right to this CD at once. Maybe because the former CD ends with exactly these words 'I AM'. Although they are both great concept albums and from Sweden, and seem to be with obsession with these words, the two concepts are worlds apart.

While BE is a fictional and philosophical endeaver, IAM is pretty personal and to my poor English it seems Mr Bodin's key message is simply 'be yourself', or make "the world remember your name".

To be honest, I haven't followed much the Flower Kings and other side projects of the band members. This is a very fine record to my opinion. However,I think this album would really improve tremendously if Mr Bodin can get a good lyricist (sorry Tomas) to avoid some of the cliches.

Musically, this is a wonderful offering. Obviously it's a keyboardist solo album, Tomas' using patches is great. No sounds come out pretty cheesy. Other instruments are not any less solid. Some of the guitarworks are very not so bad. There's nothing else to say on the bass as it's his TFK bandmate Jonas Reingold. His bass is in all the right places. The mix is good and crisp.

One of the moments in the CD that I like best. I am playing this CD now and this section in A track from The Path of Decision I, The Prayer, upto The Path of Decision II. The first is an instrumental section with almost jazzy feel. JR is brilliant in his duel with TB's soft piano. The Prayer has some of the most haunting melodies I've ever listened this year. Too bad it's too short, and you just can't rewind a 21minute track to certain spot right?

The weakness, if any, would be the voice of Anders Jansson. His voice seems to have an interesting range, from brilliant to rather lame. Obviously the guy has some good moments but I think he seems to be very good in hard-rockish tracks (e.g. Take Me Home or In the Land of Retrospect Part 2). His lower registers in some of the quieter moments in The Prayer and the first verse of The Halls of Future are nothing short of briliant.

Another let down is the Voice Macabre section in the M track. It's so similar to one of DT songs off Train of Thoughts album. Luckily it's short.

On rating, I think this one is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. Looking at the rating guidelines below, i am forced to ask myself if I lose this CD would i buy a new one. Then I know I can give it only 3 stars here. Sorry Tomas. I'd look forward to hearing new stuff from your new You Are album.