MILLIONTOWN

THE surprise of the year, so far. Caught me off guard and left me speechless. Opener 'Hyperventilate' may in itself have invented a new style, 'Symphonic Neo Prog'. A high energy instrumental magnum opus. It is clear with this song that the production on this album is top notch and unique.

'No Me No You' is a more standard song, but by no means less interesting. Dark, heavy verses, followed by nice choruses reminding me of Tears for Fears for some reason, only with a much harder edge. Great vocal harmonies, 80's sounding but definitely not cheesy.

'Snowman' is a mellow number, very moody. The synth and electronics work here are great. A good number.

'The Other Me' is another rocker, at times reminiscent of Stabbing Westward in their prime, and has a very infectious chorus, once again very 80's sounding in the melodies but with a very modern approach musically. Also reminds me a bit of Peter Gabriel hallucinogenics.

The second epic of this album, 'Black Light Machine' starts with an interesting delayed tapping guitar pattern, and from there on evolves, changes moods often, and explodes into a groovy and hectic instrumental segment, with some production tweakings à la O.S.I. (like drum fills played in reverse). I found myself laughing as I enjoyed the instrumental part so much.

Album closer, third epic and title track 'Milliontown' is absolutely amazing and breathtaking, 26 minutes of pure majestic symphonic neo prog. Genius I tell ya!

Being a fan of John Mitchell's other works but having never heard IQ before I did not know what to expect, and in fact, expected nothing. That is probably the reason why I am so flabbergasted with this album. I John Jowitt and Andy Edwards sound half as good in IQ as they sound in Milliontown, I'll buy every IQ album they have played on. Mitchell surpasses himself on Milliontown. He shows us another level of his capabilities, and will surely take his rightfully deserved place among the modern day prog guitar heroes. Jem Godfrey's keyboard playing is just amazing. He belongs within the greats of his era and also with the old time greats (some piano moments remind me of Genesis, Supertramp, while some keyboard parts could have been played by Jordan Rudess), and his voice adds color to the music and sounds unique. Coarse, raw and melodic.

All in all, this album is the best debut I have heard in a long, very long time. Milliontown will probably get my vote for 2006 album of the year, because I seriously doubt that something superior to this will hit the shelves this year. A masterpiece and a promise of a very interesting future.