OUT OF MYSELF

It's really hard not to like Riverside. They have musicianship, passion, melody, great tunes and they use all those features to play a respectful tribute to all other great bands out there: Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, Marillion, Anathema and many more. And on top of that, they're such sympathetic dudes.

There's one issue I have though. With their first three albums in particular, it's a symptom called 'playing it safe'. Now, I wouldn't go as far as to call them formulaic, but there's no denying that Riverside has applied a recipe that could not fail. And sure it did not fail, this album is one of your safest prog purchases for the year 2003 and they have become quite successful because of it. Suits me fine.

So where it concerns the music, it's perfect, too perfect. There's not one wrong note here. The musicians are skilful and the singer must have the most warm and charming and inoffensive voice in the entire history of progressive rock. But it may not surprise you that I prefer the songs that deviate most from the norm: the Middle-Eastern opening section, the harder edged Out of Myself, the smoky bar ambience of OK and the slightly more adventurous Reality Dream I. Also the Anathema homage Loose Heart is adorable. I had expected to throw 4 stars at this but no, it's not enough.

When I listen to music, I prefer the occasional odd flavour or one or other sharp spice that makes me look up in surprise. Something that stirs my interest, something unexpected, exciting or challenging, something that will make me revisit the music and have another taste of it till I finally acquire it. It's an affliction I call proggophrenia, a personality disorder that makes a lot of music sound tame and derivative, it may be contracted from too much exposure to prog and especially from too much reviewing so watch out there!