THE WINDOW OF LIFE

"The Window Of Life" is the fourth studio album of Pendragon and was released in 1993. With this album Pendragon continued in the same style of their previous third studio album "The World", and due to that, Pendragon established their name worldwide. I think in those days, Pendragon improved with each album. I believe they created some of the best and finest neo-prog on the planet, even today. It's a different piece, and who have little knowledge of the previous albums of Pendragon will probably enjoy it a lot. It keeps on the new path of them that ended with "Not Of This World".

The line up on "The Window Of Life" is the same of their two previous studio albums "Kowtow", released in 1988 and "The World", released in 1991, their second and third studio albums, respectively. So, the line up on "The Window Of Life" is Nick Barrett (vocals and guitars), Clive Nolan (keyboards), Peter Gee (bass guitar) and Fudge Smith (drums).

"The Window Of Life" has six tracks. All tracks were written by Nick Barrett. The first track "The Walls Of Babylon" is a song that begins with a very atmospheric musical ambience that reminds me very strongly the intro on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" of Pink Floyd. It has also, in the beginning, a very impressive keyboard work that also reminds me Tony Banks of Genesis, especially at the times of "A Trick Of The Tail" and "Wind And Wuthering". So, it starts with a very bombastic organ sound before the very typical Barrett's guitar sound. This is a great song with great chorus and a great guitar work that opens the album with a very strong and in a good way. The second track "Ghosts" is another excellent song with a great piano opening by Nolan, with very subtle and constant changes of melody and tempo. The final result is a very good rock piece of music despite hasn't the same splendour of the previous track. This is another song that reminds me, sometimes, "A Trick Of The Tail" too. This is one of those songs that show what Pendragon make, which means, very good musical compositions with emotional vocals and a nice sing choral work. The third track "Breaking The Spell" is the ballad of the album and is also probably one of the best ballads Pendragon has ever written. This is another great track with some nice keyboard and guitar works, a very dynamic bass line and a very nice drum performance. It's a song with a great and hypnotic musical atmosphere that provides perfectly well the ideal ambience to the great solo works performed by Barrett. It represents a very beautiful musical moment, very symphonic, which shows a perfect musical communion between Barrett and Nolan, really. The fourth track "The Last Man On Earth" is divided into two musical parts "Skylight" and "Paradise Road" and represents the epic track on the album. It's a song with a very good musicianship and also very good lyrics for almost its fifteen minutes. This is really a great song and it wasn't by chance that this song is still one of the live favourite songs of the band. It's one of the lengthiest Pendragon's tracks and summarizes perfectly well all the great qualities present on this album and on the group. All instruments are in a perfect harmony, especially the great guitar and keyboard works. The fifth track "Nostradamus (Stargazing)" is another very good song with very touchy chorus, very rocky guitars and some nice keyboard work. It starts with a very nice ballad as an intro and is based on a very simple but effective guitar riff where Barrett shines with the melody line. However, and despite be a good track, this is, in my humble opinion, the weakest of all tracks on the album. The sixth and last track "Am I Really Losing You?" is another ballad on the album, a soft smooth ballad with a nice, emotional and repetitive guitar solo. It's the shortest song on the album, very emotional and poignant and where the final guitar break is extremely melodic and catchy. It represents a very nice way to close this great musical work of this great band. My "The Window Of Life" version is the remastered edition and has plus four bonus tracks. The four bonus tracks make part of their EP "Fallen Dreams And Angels", released in 1994. So, I'm not going now analyse these four songs because I usually don't review bonus tracks, as you know. However, I'm going to review all the four tracks when I review that EP.

Conclusion: With "The Window Of Life" Pendragon continues the same musical line of "The World". In spite of, "The Window Of Life" isn't the best Pendragon's album, it's an excellent and decent musical work with some highlights. It's also, in my humble opinion, probably better than "The World" is, and it represents, for me, a very logical step forward into their musical career. "The Window Of Life" is a very beautiful, soft and melodic progressive album with great guitar and keyboard works. With this album, Pendragon solidified their musical status as one of the best neo- prog bands in the world, and "The Window Of Life" stands, for me, one of their best musical works. However, and despite being better than "The World", it isn't, in my humble opinion, a true masterpiece. Thus, I'm going to rate it with the same 4 stars. To conclude, I have to mention the great musical production by Karl Groom, Nick Barrett and Gavin Greenway that makes of "The Window Of Life" even a better album. So, this is another Pendragon's album not to be missed by all prog fans.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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