BELIEVE

5 year wait for 51 minutes ofmusic which, to my ears, could have come from left over tracks. Gone is everything that was great about Pendragon as this album has none of the memorable hooks and melodies associated with their last 3 albums and Clive Nolan playing a bit part. The symphonic sweeps of his keys are sadly missing and as a result the songs suffer for that.

I agree that Nick's vocals are much stronger on this album but he has very few lead guitar solos with the dominance on acoustic guitars. When he does break free you are waiting for that massive orchestral sweep to back him up and it does not appear. The decision to speak on several tracks is a terrible decision IMHO and one or two songs just sound all over the place - particularly on Wishing Well. It is really only on Sou by Souwest that I hear anything familiar about the band and some strength in the songs. The final track is rather nice but something is missing from it?

If this was an album by a new band then I would mark it higher. As a Pendragon fan for many years, this comes as a major disappointment having waited so long since their excellent NOTW album and I also think that just over 50 mins of new music is also a bit poor. All in all Nick B clearly wants to take the band in a new direction. For me, this is the end of a love affair with the band as the album is not symphonic and that is what I loved most about this band. To reduce Nolan's input to the point he is hardly noticed is questionable as the band's signature sound has Clive in full flow and the band being the most symphonic of all British neo-prog/symphonic bands. I think many fans will be very disappointed in this album as it may be new but it is definately not better than any of their last 3 albums. Two stars is the most I can offer (based only 2 songs of note). Sorry Nick but something is clearly amiss on this album.