SEVEN

It's not because you have a singer that has a voice similar to Peter Gabriel and a music similar to Genesis and IQ that you can deliver music of the same caliber. It's been a while that I have been impressed by one of their albums and this new album is not an exception. The second track "Disappearing Act" show a different sound more in the Depeche Mode electro atmosphere, it's not a bad song. The rest of the album is the typical The Watch, and with a band that is struggling to reach the greatness of the best Neo-Prog bands, IQ in particular, the composition level is not very high. You won't find any epic song where you can feel the progression of the melody through some tempo and mood changes, only the last track "After the Blast" give me some pleasure with some interesting instrumental passages. Not recommended, only to die-hard fans.

This is album number seven for THE WATCH, and no not even a controversial album cover, or a guest appearance by Steve Hackett can save this one. That cover art is THE RESIDENTS approved, I'll say that. And the song Hackett is on "The Hermit" is one he wrote the music and lyrics for, but probably my least favourite track, as it is dominated by piano and acoustic guitar.

I was so disappointed when I first spent time with this album back in October of 2019. Like the previous record "Tracks From The Alps" I feel like they are desperately trying to change things up, but it's just not working. The electronics on "Disappearing Act" does actually work, and this might be my favourite track on here. The power on the opener "Blackest Deeds" is a welcome change, especially the bass and atmosphere late. Francesco Zago from YUGEN helped write the music for it. He was actually the guitarist for THE NIGHT WATCH, which was THE WATCH before they were called THE WATCH.

The closer "After The Blast" is the longest, and one of the most adventerous pieces on here. Very GENESIS-like of course. "Tightrope" is good, but the short "It's Only A Dream" not so much. This is my least favourite of their first seven studio albums, and where I got off the bus. I'm done waiting for another "Vacuum" recording by them. Heck, I'm done waiting for another solid 4 star record by them, like their back to back "Planet Earth?" and "Timeless" albums, both solid 4 star recordings.

3 stars is all I got.