THE TALL SHIPS

Progressive-pop is one of those genres that ever so hard to get just right; progressive fans demand a sense of the unconventional and knotty while pop fans desire hooks and immediacy to keep them interested. Furthermore, even when a fairly good prog-pop album comes along, the emotional power it has is often hindered by an uninteresting presentation, vocals that aren't pleasant, or a forced dissonance just to make the songs seem better than they actually are.

It Bites 'The Tall Ships' however, manages to avoid not only all the pitfalls that its competitors often fall into, but also balance the art-rock with poppiness just as well as the previous incarnation of this band.

For starters, although I consider lead guitarist and vocalist John Mitchell rather mediocre in his work with Arena and Kino, for some reason he actually manages to sound quite awesome here. His range is nothing jaw dropping, but on tracks such as "Oh My God' and the title track itself he certainly has the ability to turn a few heads. There's also something distinctive about the way he plays guitar that stands out, but its difficult to put into words exactly what it is. The track lengths and song structures should also tell you right off that despite the slickness of the production values, this is NOT an album for radio.

Ultimately, although I don't say this often for an album that isn't particularly progressive, 'The Tall Ships' is about as close to a perfect crossover-prog album as your going to find in this day and age, for better or for worse. The hooks are simple yet effective, the vocals striking and occasionally quite emotional, and the instrumental interplay is both bright without being too commercial yet just complicated and loose enough to appeal to the technical otakus.

If you want some ear candy done with finesse and with a progressive audience in mind, this record is the way to go.