THE WAKE

With the bass thumping that starts out the album, then the wash of keyboards, and finally the song proper begins, it pulls you in with Nicholl's pleading voice and lyrics. This was the first album I bought by the band and immediately enjoyed Nicholl's distinctive voice. Even moreso, I put his lyrical prowess up there with Peter Gabriel and Dave Cousins, my two other favorite writers. Every song on the album has that IQ stamp, fantastic keyboards by Martin Orford, Mike Holme's Hackett inspired guitar work and Peter Cooks excellent drumming, mix them with a gothic sheen and Nichol's somber lyrics and you get a wonderful mix. Other than the syrupy 80's Genesis sounding "Corners" and the somewhat decent poppy song "The Thousand Days", there are huge classics on this disc. "Headlong" , "The Magic Roundabout" and the bonus track, "Dans Le Pare Du Chateau Noir"are flat out masterpieces of gothic, Genesis inspired prog. Just imagine "Wind and Wuthering" era Genesis mixed with a ting of The Cure/Bauhaus/Echo and the Bunnymen...new romantic prog. Don't forget, it came out 1985 and had to deal with the big English bands of the day. I give them props for trying something different. I agree with other reviewers when they say that this album is a great starting point to dip into the neo-prog pool. A four-star winner!