THE WINDS OF CHANGE

JUMP belong to the second movement of British bands evolving in late-80's/early-90's (see Jadis) trying to keep the progressive rock spirit alive.Some of them did it quite well,but some of them captured the early neo prog sound to just make it even more accesible.

Unfortunately JUMP belong to this second category,at least on their early efforts and the result is just standard plain melodic rock with AOR elements and only a few progressive twists."The Winds of Change" is full of cliche melodies and song structures with little inspiration and the only thing to remind that this is a prog-related band is some good synth passages,some scarce emotive solos and the Fish-sound-alike attempts of the singer on the first few tracks.The melodies are not that memorable,not to say some funky/bluesy tracks or a couple of ballads are totally out of place.On the other hand,the production is clear and the singer is definitely among the best on the neo prog league.

I wouldn't recommend this album to a demanding proghead at all,actually "The Winds of Change" heads only for Neo Prog completionists,who will propably find some stuff to like in here...2 stars.