THE WORDS

I really don't know why after disastrous previous record, Novela came back to studio to create another dreadful turkey with more synth-pop crap but this time mixed with some small dozens of progressive rock influences. They wanted to completely destroy their reputation or what?!

Anyway "The Words" is 8th and - fortunately - the last studio album of this formation (and second recorded without two key members: Toshio Egawa and Hisakatsu Igarashi). It includes 10 usually deadly bad songs:

1. "My Love in You" - horrible pop dud with ear shattering synthesizers noises, monotonous drums and repetitive keyboard "riff".

2. "Began the Day for End" - another synth-pop song this time a bit slower so maybe more bearable. Boring and uninspired at all. And Youshi Okamoto's keyboards sound horrendous as usual...

3. "Katamuku Hizashi Ni" - poppy ballad but with some not-so-bad almost-symphonic synthesizer "atmospheric" solos in the middle. Passable but surely not flawless. Too "sweet" to be called true prog-rock composition.

4. "Gloomy Pain" - another synth-pop horror but with 2 redeeming factors: nice organ imitation played by Okamoto and some synth solos in the middle. Seems Novela started to miss their past prog-rock glory but was unable to resurrect such kind of music within current synth-pop formula.

5. "The Words" - the best song on "The Words" which includes more elaborated instrumental parts. In the middle very good, almost romantic piano solos. Unfortunately repetitive drum-machine beat almost destroys the whole atmosphere. Nice try but can't be compared with early material of this band.

6. "Goylegar" - instrumental track with some rather good guitar lead and rather pleasant keyboards parts. Unfortunately repetitive drum-machine and one synth gimmick which just can't stop through the whole composition spoil any fun.

7. "Reverie" - just another synth-pop track. Not more - not less.

8. "Labyrinth" - along with "The Words" this is the most prog track on the album. However it's still more pop-rock/AOR than "real thing". Some guitar and synth solos, some very corny radio/TV voices mixed with annoying noises in the middle and ballad-style vocal sections. Passable bot not brilliant.

9. "Out of Labyrinth" - short instrumental at first based on toy-piano like keyboard and later on atmospheric synthesizer waves.

10. "Going to the Kingdom" - another not really successful combination of pop and neo-prog. Lots of synths, generic guitar riffs and lifeless drum hits. Near the end included very corny sounding "Going to the Kingdom" phrase which is repeated again and again.

To sum up: last Novela's recording contains mainly synth-pop songs with horribly repetitive percussion and cheesy-sounding electronic keyboards. However I have to admit that compared with "Brain of Balance" record it's slightly better because after all we can listen to several prog-rock influenced moments here, while previous album was complete waste of time and patience. Anyway it doesn't change a thing that "The Words" is a truly bad release which can't be recommend to anybody. "Brain of Balanced" deserved zero stars, bit "The Words" can get 1,5 from me. Why not? I'm really generous today :-). But you have to keep in mind that this album is better then preceding one, just like cholera is better than syphilis, which means not much better... So just stick to 1980-1984 period albums if you like this band.

As I said - 1,5 star for "The Words" from ozzy_tom.