BELIEVE

"Believe" is the seventh studio album of Pendragon that was released in 2005. After four years of inactivity, in terms of studio albums, Pendragon released this new studio work. It represents, somehow, in my humble opinion, the beginning of a change into the type of their progressive rock sound. It represents, in a certain way, a cut with their previous four studio albums "The World", "The Window Of Life", "The Masquerade Overture" and "Not Of This World". While staying true to the band's melodic roots and progressive orientation, as is usual, it has quite some new elements to offer too.

The line up on the album is the same of their five previous studio albums "Kowtow", released in 1988, "The World", released in 1991, "The Window Of Life", released in 1993, "The Masquerade Overture", released in 1996 and "Not Of This World", released in 2001, their second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth studio albums, respectively. So, the line up on the album is Nick Barrett (vocals and guitars), Clive Nolan (keyboards), Peter Gee (bass) and Fudge Smith (drums).

"Believe" has six tracks. All tracks were written by Nick Barrett. The first track "Believe" is a very unconventional and mysterious way to open the album. It's a prolonged instrumental track that seems to me have the use of some native instruments combined with Celtic vocals sung by a woman in Gaelic, followed by a weird guitar sound. This is the kind of songs that immediately sets the album with a very mysterious and original vague way, holding the listener's attention instantly. The second track "No Place For The Innocent" begins after a very mysterious sentence that closes the previous track "And now everybody to the dance floor". It starts as a very strong contrast with the previous mysterious atmospheric introduction of the album. The album never ceases to amaze me. This is a very powerful rock track that sounds more as a conventional track than a really progressive track. Curiously, sometimes it sounds to my ears as a song very close to REM's music. It's curious and interesting but this song sounds remarkably good, new and refreshing to me. The third track "The Wisdom Of Solomon" is a kind of a mini-epic song that starts with some Arabic sound with some female vocals. It starts fantastically with some vintage keyboard and guitar sounds. This is a song full of great guitar work with some very good guitar solos towards the end. The song is so interesting and nice to hear that we don't realise the time spent, as if the song never takes about its seven minutes long. This song continues the change of the sound of the band as if the group was trying to show the new Pendragon of the 21st century. The fourth track "The Wishing Well" is divided into four parts "For Your Journey", "Sou' By Sou' West", "We Talked" and "Two Roads". This song is the centrepiece of the album with an epic with about twenty-one minutes long. The first part is a largely spoken piece of music, accompanied by a celestial musical atmospheric ambience, extremely beautiful. The second part brings the album back to a more common Pendragon's musical territory. It has an extremely beautiful Genesis' style dual acoustic guitars during the verses and some great guitar electric solos which are played thorough the choruses. The third part is a great rock song filled with some weird vocal effects and some great musical parts very well performed by all band's members. The fourth part starts as an acoustic ballad that soon rocks very strong with an excellent slide guitar solo in the end. The fifth track "Learning Curve" has some organic wind instruments mixed in the very electric arrangement of keyboards and guitars. The instrumental section of the song is simply great with a very impressive bass line, turning it in one of the best instrumental sections the band ever made. The sixth and last track "The Edge Of The World" follows the same formula of their previous four studio albums backing the music in a more familiar Pendragon's territory. Again the song has a long instrumental section, with a great and long guitar solo extremely beautiful. This is, in my humble opinion, an excellent and beautiful way to close this new, strange and very beautiful album from the band.

Conclusion: "Believe" is a strange album, especially for band's fans that are more akin with the traditional music of the band. As I wrote above, with "Believe", Pendragon begins another change in their music and continues progressing on it. "Believe" is, in my humble opinion, a transition album of the band which opens the way to their following two new studio albums "Pure" and "Passion". "Believe" is a very emotional album with a mix of all we knew before inside Pendragon's music, plus some new musical elements added to it. With "Believe", Pendragon proves that the band is still very much alive and kicking, sounding stronger and more powerful than before. Nick Barrett also proves that he can still deliver and that his guitar playing is heavenly as before and that his vocals are stronger and better than in the past. Concluding, "Believe" is, in my humble opinion, an excellent and very beautiful album, too much underrated and misunderstood. Sincerely, I recommend it very strongly. And for those who didn't like it at the first impression, I hope they can give to it a new opportunity and hearing it a couple of more times. Probably it will change their initial opinion.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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