WINDS OF ISIS

In some respects this album reminds me of Rick Wakeman's Six Wives. Like that album, there is the claim of an overarching narrative concept (although the concept of Winds of Isis is never spelt out at any point in liner notes, only hinted in some evocative titles). Like that album, the music doesn't often strongly evoke the claimed concept. Like that album, it seems to be more about showing off how many keyboards Chris Neal owns and how well he can play them. The compositions are very simple, often sounding like the backing tracks to unfinished pop/rock songs, often quite repetitive (the well-named "Ritual Eternal" being a case in point). There is plenty of mellotron and plenty of analog synthesizer. Neal is a very good keyboardist, but not jaw-droppingly virtuosic. The album is a pleasant listen, but rarely an exciting one.