THE MUSE AWAKENS

A somewhat mellower album then their two Arista records. The songs with bit, "Contemporary Insanity", Lunch...", and "Barking Spiders" are the highlights and are wholely compariable with their best material; killer guitar, burpy keyboards, fantastic percussion and, above all, humor. The humor is what's missing in most prog, and these guys fill the void with aplomb. As for the rest of the tracks, if you enjoy laying on the beach, or in bed with eyes closed and headphones on and are willing to drift off into the atmosphere, then you're in for a treat. Beautiful flutes, somber acoustic guitar, delicate horns and washes of keyboards, it's a quiet, non-threating way to pass time. In a way, the album is non-threating and is as pleasant as a summerl breeze. A flat-out wonderful chill- out prog album.