SUMMER INDOORS

Reputedly Summer Indoors were heavily influenced by RUSH back in 1987 when they first kicked off and apparently this is their main source of inspiration in the more guitar-driven tracks with plenty of powerful leads, sharp solos and more sensitive strokes over rhythmic and well-developed structures with an intense lyricism and a great vocalist like Chris Dempsey.Things often go a bit further.There are lots of pieces with a balanced keyboard-guitar offerings close to the tastes of ENCHANT and more impressively even in the shortest track some instrumental moves are thrown in for good measure.And then there are these pieces, which seem more tightly linked to the British school of 80's Prog with JADIS and PALLAS being the more appropriate comparisons.The sound remains fairly guitar-driven, incorporating some hard-hitting, rockin' moments but also some beautiful melodic parts, while there are some intense synth flashes here and there to offer the familiar Neo Prog flavor.Now, the rest is pretty much known, depending on the band's main influence.The rhythm section is pretty powerful and the quartet keeps a well-drawn line between groovy parts, slightly orchestal keyboards and smoother melodies for an album, which sounds like a standard SI release.

Music, performed with the colors of RUSH, ENCHANT and JADIS.Heavier at moments, more melodic during others.But always well-played.Recommended.

Anyway, at least I'm able to review their album ultimately so here we go. The opener Placebo is immediately the most progressive track I believe and probably the best. A good composition it is and a good example of a crossover sort of song (so right in between prog and pop). Funny enough the rest of the songs are leaning more towards pop which made me agree with the admins decision back then. Still the inclusion can be defended since PA wants to add every band that made at least one progressive track in their history.

Summer Indoors produces "pop plus" so to speak meaning that it's pop music with a progressive flavor, more inventive and complex than most pop usually is. I feel the band could be content about their appearance here because they are a true borderline case. If you like bands like that, go for this Songs in the Key of H. Nice prog related stuff without being excellent at any point. From the other album There's Orangie I only know their song Peaktime Boulevard because it appeared on a SI sampler and that sounded pretty progressive as well so the band knows what prog is about obviously but decided to go for the very accessible road most of the time. If you're getting curious go for their albums I'd say but don't expect too much of it. 2,75 *.