WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

This unique 8-member Norwegian Symphonic progressive pop collective has delivered a strong and powerful follow-up to their wonderful previous album, Playing House (2021), as this is bigger and bolder, more emotional, dramatic, and theatrical, as well as with more Prog elements than the prior album. Led by the brother-sister vocal duo of Knut and Johanne-Magrete Kippersund Nesdal and a large supporting cast of multi-instrumentalists (including violin, viola, guitars, keyboards, etc), they have big bold songs with great vocals from the siblings and big pop orchestral arrangements. Powerful, melodic, and impressive throughout, although my one main complaint about the album is that there is a bit too much sameness in the style and approach from song to song (not as much variety and diversity as the previous album), as they all basically start out softly with melodic themes and then build throughout the song to a big dramatic (and usually orchestral) conclusion (sometimes featuring somewhat overwrought vocals). Although this works extremely well for most songs, in some cases it is just too much and the songs would have worked better if they had remained more understated and gentle, and this would have helped the overall feel and flow of the album, as it is just sometimes a bit too much, and this also would have made the concluding powerhouse songs more effective, instead of just more of the same. So, although a great band with a great sound and some great songs here, and an overall very strong album, at least for me, I still prefer the previous album over this one. Best Tracks: Chains of Changes, Come To Light, Today Tonight Tomorrow, Take Me to the River, Something in the Water. Rating: 3.5