THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

Another great album by SB, with even more use of Hammond organ and Mellotron than the previous releases. This time the band's bet consists in several mini-epics around 10-15 minutes, plus some short songs with slightly more pop feeling than usual, but still proggish. The epics are all good, combining catchy vocal melodies and complex 70's prog arrangements. In The Good Don't Last they make a classical introduction with a cello as a new ingredient in their music. Harm's Way features mellotron laden atmospheric vocal parts and entertaining instrumental playing with exceptional drums and Hammond work, and my favourite is Flow, with its soaring guitar coda with the trademark sustained guitar sound of Alan Morse. The short ones are also interesting, being the highlight June, one of the best ballads I have heard in modern prog, with impressing beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies. The only low point is In The Mouth Of Madness, in which Neal uses again certain melody and arrangements that he had played before, almost the same, in The Light album. That detail doesn't bother me too much because this album contains so many great tracks that easily deserves 5 stars and it's a candidate to be their best album, which is a difficult choice. They have so many good albums!