BETWEEN

"Between" is the fifth studio album by Mad Puppet and was self-released in 2020 in a 300 copies limited vinyl edition and in 2021 in digital version. It was recorded with a line up featuring Manfred Kaufmann (keyboards), Christoph Senoner (guitars), Thomas Pichler (bass, clarinet), Michael Mock (drums, percussion) and Manfred Schweigkofler (vocals) and marks a come back to the neo-prog origins of the band, twenty years after the disappointing, pop-oriented Cube. According to an interview with the band, the key is in the title: "all the songs deal with something that is in-between, between one thing and another. Even with irony towards restarting"...

The aggressive, nervous "New Start" sets the atmosphere evoking the need of a new beginning, the desire to re-start every day to make life better, cooler, more glamorous. Anyway, the results are not always successful... Then the rhythm slackens for the dreamy "Black Swan" that adds a touch of nostalgia for old songs and old friends and leads to the search for a way out from darkness, following the flight of a bold black swan...

The soft, mysterious "Foggy Day" tells of a day where empty clouds fill the space and you get lost, but the hope to recover your old brilliant sound remains intact as the hope to see the colours of the rainbow again... Then it's the turn of the sarcastic, disquieting "Mote Of Dust" that conjures up the image of a human race lost in the cosmic darkness, in an endless nowhere in the middle of the universe where men kill each other and destroy their world like in a video game...

"Won't Lose My Way" starts softly and tells of a difficult come back from a long journey where there's always a burning light showing the way home. It's a long piece with some changes in atmosphere that along the way blends elements of blues and hard rock with darker, dramatic passages... Next comes "You And I", a short, melancholic piece describing a long waiting under a broken, falling sky on the banks of a river that looks like an ocean to cross...

The theatrical "Fail Again" blends prog and blues with a sense of madness crawling underneath the surface of a life that it's more than it seems, a basket full of wonders that not everyone can appreciate... Then comes the ironic optimism of "Tomorrow" with its prediction of an impending change and its promises for the future, a piece that features a guest brass section and ends the album with a touch of jazz and soul.

On the whole, a nice album that deserves a try.