WRONG

Any offspring of ANYONE's DAUGHTER is bound to have some progressive credibility. The decision of Matthias Ulmer and Uwe Karpa to reform under the same moniker over 15 years later also bodes well for continuity of style. However, as it turns out, that choice was more marketing canniness than artistic integrity. Adopt the old name and you have access to the fans and the musical vaults, That this 2004 offering was the last studio effort suggests that neither longstanding aficionados nor newcomers are buying in.

First of all, the vocals from Andre Carswell, while far better technically than those of former singer, and now MD, Harald Bareth, tend to dumb down even the most intricate material here with an AOR or alt rock dominance. But we can't blame all of that on Carswell - the band can't seem to decide whether it wants to dumb down or not, so the result is a hodgepodge of 90s alt rock and 80s arena rock with grafts of heavy metal and funk. I don't deny there are progressive passages throughout, but they seem like strands of band DNA that escaped the cosmetologist. The title and opening cut best exemplifies all these qualities, for better and worse, while "Happy Go Lucky" and Your Time" ("Your time will come much more sooner") just reveal the worst.

Several solid cuts do emerge, but none of them do so because of any particular intricacy. Instead they are solid compositions solidly arranged AND are best suited to the band in its current incarnation. "Far Away" is a glorious anthem that presents Carswell's voice in the best light, while "Fade Out" incorporates some world music aspects into its trance like demeanour. "Helios Reloaded" is one of the tunes in which Ulmer can cut loose, but in this case his interplay with Carswell is far more seamless. Here, Ulmer's runs remind me of "Puppenspiel" from the early days. Other than these, occasional flashes of brilliance within overly long and mundane compositions reflect business as usual.

Not quite evil or nasty, "Wrong" suggests that the daughter has not aged well, but this is really more a case of identity theft by a stepsister.