WILDEST DREAMS

In fact this album always was the conformation of the downfall of Saga, at least when we are talking about the great Saga I once knew and loved so much. This is a very mediocre album by them, it was already showing clearly with their previous (Behaviour) but this one is even less. The compositions are really below their standard and it's almost commercial.

In the past I bought this as a vinyl but never bothered to buy the CD so that should tell you enough. It's even worse because my record player isn't working anymore so that means I can't play Wildest Dreams any more. But actually, I don't mind. 2 stars for this. (2.3).

Having picked this used LP up at the same time as Behaviour, I was less than excited at finally hearing it. Behaviour had pointed the band to a more mainstream radio commercial sound. The songs were pretty good for that sort of music, but not what I usually like. And seeing that the band drops Gilmour & Negus left some apprehension too.

So here goes in a nutshell. If you look through the music charts of the year, this album's music fits perfectly in with such Contemporary pop gems like - Janet Jackson, Simply Red, Simple Minds, Heart (in their soft AOR phase), Whitney Houston, Eurythmics. Except that Saga didn't achieve chart success. And in the process also saw their well earned fan base diminish after two pop albums.

So while Behaviour was at least Saga in sound if not style, Wildest Dreams was mid 80s studio confection, but without the hit single that would have made it worth something to the band.

Hopefully, this was cause by label pressures. From the reviews I've read on the following albums, it would seem that Saga quickly gave up on joining Phil Collins on the Adult Contemporary charts . Barely a one.

And then there were three

It seems to be widely held that the present album was Saga's worst, but while I agree that this is indeed a weak album, I think that the previous one was actually slightly worse or at least equally bad. Both albums belong to Saga's weakest period, but while Behaviour was more towards Phil Collins-like Pop, Wildest Dreams is more towards Asia-like Rock (ironically, Asia too had songs with the titles Wildest Dreams and Only Time Will Tell). Wildest Dreams would have been a more natural follow-up to Heads Or Tales than was Behaviour. The latter album struck me as a departure from the typical Saga sound with its slower tempo and larger quantity of ballads, but Wildest Dreams is once again more of a Rock album. A weak one, but still! The songs are a bit more energetic and "bombastic" again, but there is not yet any sign of the band returning to progressive Rock.

At this point only Ian Crichton, Jim Crichton and Michael Sadler were left from the previous album. New drummer Curt Cress provides mostly electronic percussion. The eight songs featured here are all between four and five minutes long, making for a rather short album. The songs are rather simplistic and conventional and the sound and mood is pretty much the same throughout. The songs are not particularly memorable and this album is frankly forgettable.

Another poor Saga album, together with Behaviour this was the weakest point of Saga's career

The 80s saw the rise of a type of Progressive Pop music that was mixing commercial music with Progressive Rock that was doing a pretty good job of competing with the New Wave craze that was going on. The early 80s saw groups like "Asia", "Yes", "Genesis", and "Saga" find that perfect spot on the radio that satisfied both pop/rock music lovers while keeping their progressive edge. Saga was riding high after the release of "Worlds Apart" and the more guitar heavy "Heads or Tails" and things were looking pretty good for them. But then, after the release of "Behavior", Saga tended to become more pop-oriented, losing almost all of their prog sensibilities, and, even though the sales of the album were decent, fans expected the harder edge, and it was no longer there.

Unfortunately, things got worse with "Wildest Dreams". Saga got a new label in Atlantic, and the company promoted the new release heavily, but once the sales proved poor, the album suddenly became hard to come by, and has now been considered hard to find. The album, however, isn't worth the trouble, as it is moved even further away from Progressive music. The music on this album show no signs of progressiveness, but is just bad commercial music. Nothing on this album leaves any kind of impression, and even with it's move to mainstream, there is nothing on this album that even makes it interesting even to lovers of popular music.

You can't even call this hard rock, it's just straight mid tempo pop. Very emotionless, every thing is quite run of the mill. The only thing that is carried over from the previous albums is the signature sound of the vocals. None of the songs even reach the 5 minute mark, there are no long instrumental passages or interplay among the instruments as before, just MOR music. This album could just have easily been made by "REO Speedwagon" or "Journey" as it resembles the music they were making at the same time. The only distinguishing factor are the vocals. This one is quite boring, even if you are listening to it as a pop album. "Angel" is the only worthwhile song on here, but it's just a pop ballad, with a nice chorus, that's all.