AND WE'RE NOT HERE AFTER ALL

So, what's the problem with this album? Well, as a piece of Melodic Rock there is very little wrong with it at all. The songs are well-played, often with catchy hooks, and they benefit from a good, clear production. If the intention of the band is to provide good, quality music in this style then I must conclude that they are successful. To criticise any band, after all, for not playing a style of music that the listener prefers but which was never the intention of the musicians in creating the album, would be unfair. Yet, as I am submitting this review to a site dedicated to 'Progressive Rock' and as I listened to the album with an ear for that style of music, I cannot help but regard the album with some disappointment. Now, 'Overhead's' first two albums were both fine examples of 'Melodic' Progressive Rock. Agreed, neither were examples of 'complex' Progressive Rock in the mode of, say, Anglagaard, but there was a certain inventiveness ? the music included jazz, folk, Space-Rock and hard-rock elements - and development of ideas (even the ubiquitous esoteric 'concepts') across some lengthy tracks and throughout the albums as a whole which lent each a coherent 'Progressive' unity. The amalgam of the 1980'style of 'Neo' Progressive with its focus upon accessible melodic and harmonic patterns and the harder edge of 1990's style Progressive Metal led, in those albums, led to a highly successful outcome. But most of these 'Progressive' dynamics are no longer apparent on this 3rd album leading the music perilously close to what Kevin Holm-Hudson terms 'Prog-Lite'. This is a pity given that 'Overhead' self-proclaim, in various on-line interviews, their adherence to the Progressive Rock project and that their earlier work (and even the musicianship on this album) suggests that they are more than capable of producing high quality music in the 'Progressive' style without needing to embrace compositional complexity for its own sake. It would seem that, unlike most Progressive Rock bands, 'Overhead' has garnered, at least in Northern Europe, some commercial success. Has the lure of commercial success, I wonder, led them in the wrong direction and away from what had earlier lent the band some admirable 'Progressive' credentials? Compare this album to the brilliant contribution to compilation album 'Tuonen tytär II: A Tribute to Finnish Progressive Rock of the 70's' and the point I am making here becomes all the more apparent.