LOST IN THE NEW REAL

I've been working a lot lately and wearing out my CD's. I've really been in a rut and wanted to find something new. PA is one of my regular "go to" sites for music, so when I received a gift card for music downloads, I decided to see what was listed for the top 2012 releases so far. Boy...am I glad I did!

Arjen Anthony Lucassen's "Lost in the New Real" really did it for me. I just bought it Sunday and I've spun it 3 or 4 times in the 3 days since. I was hooked from the get-go. I love the story AAL weaves about Mr. L waking up in a future world and discovering what the New Real is all about. I like his clever lyrics in "Pink Beatles In A Purple Zeppelin" and "Where Pigs Fly". The musicianship is stellar throughout and he even got Rutger Hauer to narrate. How can you go wrong?

The first 10 songs really go well together as a narrative and, as I learned from AAL's website, the second 10 are loosley related to the theme but aren't really part of the story. He threw in some cover tunes as well as some originals and I feel those second 10 songs are a little disjointed. It doesn't seem to have the flow as the first 10.

Still, having said that, I love the covers of "Welcome to the Machine" and "Battle of Evermore". Since I bought the album as a download, I don't know who the female voice is on "...Evermore" but it is absolutely beautiful. I'll be seeking that information out and finding more of her, that's for sure.

I would rate this 4.5 stars only for the slightly disjointed flow of the second 10 songs, but this is really a "must have" for prog fans out there. It's my first introduction to AAL and it won't be my last stop on the journey.