THE BIG RED SPARK

Let me put it bluntly and first say what this album is full of: it is crammed with short soundscapes, intros, outros, interludes, long speeches, musical bridges between songs, storylines and narrative twists. On the other hand, what this disc is thin on is songs and music. For your money you get no more than five proper songs (as opposed to some shreds of themes overloaded with sound effects) which include "Rainland," "Bad Weather Road," "I'm Not Crashing," "The Big Red Spark," and "Wide Awake At Midnight." These songs sound like a modernized, heavy take on neo-prog (think later Galahad and Arena). The rest of the album is just one huge filler of movie-style sounds and pretentious talking. Yes, these guys are brilliant at creating various moods in their short ambient sketches (e.g. "Building the Machine" is brimming with suspense); and a couple of songs (especially "I'm Not Crashing" ? easily the best track on the album) demonstrate that they have something to show in the songwriting department. But there is just too little of it. Instead we are fed a ridiculously pompous concept story, hardly intelligible even after visiting the band's website, with self-aggrandizing references to Nietzsche and various XX utopian literature. C'mon, if I want to read philosophy I will pick up a book. Such pseudo-intellectual aspirations are used, in my opinion, to mask the glaring absence at the heart of the album ? the absence of music. Don't be fooled by some of the rave reviews: there is lots of pretense and little substance on this disc. Besides, a two-disc set is kinda pricey and it's definitely not worth the money. The bonus DVD is supposed to contain three additional songs which I've never bothered to explore, nor ever will. In short, don't bother, there are much better albums around.