To their credit they haven't had a big dip like many bands of the 70's. I suspect this is mainly because they don't meddle with the formula too much. Crisp tight bass/drums ''tick''; Lush synths ''tick''; Sci-Fantasy/historical lyrics ''tick''. They don't know how to do 'commercial' also probably helps along with Frank's uncompromising heavily accented vocals which us fans love so much 

richardh wrote: To their credit they haven't had a big dip like many bands of the 70's.

Hmm, may I disagree. To my ears it went downwards after Time to Turn. Performance and Metromania are still OK, but not as good, whereas Ra and Destination really became rather avoidable (not to say "bad"). From their later works Ocean 2 is a rather good surprise, but personally I find the two Jeanne d'Arc albums unlistenably cringe. I will listen to the new album though, hoping it will be better, and somehow I'm glad they're still going (I almost wanted to add "strong", but I would contradict myself then...)

Is that due to the narrations? I really like them.

I agree that not all Eloy is the same, but they've not done anything I'd label horrible. I even like Performance and Metromania. But I also like Eddie Jobson's The Green Album, Rush's Grace Under Pressure and what Saga were doing round that time, so everything fits.

^ No, it's not due to the narrations. I would have to listen to them again to give a full assessment, but I'm not very much tempted to do that. From Ra on it all started to sound a bit oomphf-heavy, formulaic and not very original regarding the songwriting. Somehow it lacked some soul and emotion to me, some humanity that I found in previous albums. I still find that in Performance, although this one is not up to their preceding albums, and I recently listened to Metromania again and it was OK, but not the Eloy I love.

BTW, me too, I love Grace Under Pressure and regarding Saga, the first album after Heads or Tales that I like is The Security of Illusion. The only stand-out after that one is Generation 13, imo, but there are some other decent albums after that, although nothing groundbreaking.

I have so much ELOY in my collection ... hmmm ... do I need more? I'll listen to it first on the net somewhere and then decide. I like to have the CD's of the things I like!!!

I too thought the 2 Jeanne albums were pretty bad.  Nothing to hook me in, which was always a trademark of Eloy.  After Time to Turn, I thought Performance and Metromania were sub par but with great moments, Ra was actually quite good song wise if not production wise, Tides was decent, Ocean 2 was very good, and Visionary so so.

I haven't heard Destination for a while (Ra is genuinely awful) but The Tides Return Forever (1994) through to the last Jeanne d'Arc album was a good run of albums imo. I'm not sure why you find the last 2 'unlistenable'. I quite enjoy them personally but each to his own.

The sweet spot for Eloy for me is Colours, Planets and Time To Turn. Metromania is also extremely good for a band that was running on fumes. The next 10 years are sketchy to say the least but Frank had been intent on ending the band and the version of Eloy that carried on in that period was underwhelming and lacked consistency. Like a lot of band from the classic era they needed to get back to what made them interesting and they have. I don't honestly hear many bands doing what they do as well as they do it and there is a heck of a lot out there!

I agree with much of what you say Rich, but I have always liked Ra quite a bit (albeit the production is poor) and it has borne far more replays than Destination, which I think is their poorest offering. I also enjoy Performance which admittedly was a transitional album, but gets very little love. I thought Visionary was rather average, but Reincarnation On Stage is stunningly good and does show the tracks played from that album in as good a light as possible.

Yes, I agree it's an extraordinary live document!

same for me.  Barely a duff song between the 3 albums

I'd love to see the band again and have heard rumours that they might play Germany and Switzerland but it would be the full Jeanne D'Arc show so maybe not the gig i'd hope for...

All in all i'm really enjoying what i'm hearing and would DEFINATELY like to see them do this (with other classic tracks) live. 

Have listened to this album now, twice. The first time I was a bit afraid, when hearing they were doing a kind of pastiche of their own work in the first minutes of the first track (Conspiracy) before the woodchopper gets in to steer it into even more awry territories. Then, the rest of the album is much better, though it is clear they are leaning a lot (much too much to my liking) on their own past glory, with more or less explicit references. Many synth and bass riffs are very recognisably Eloy (from their best period, Ocean to Performance). Unfortunately 1: the drummer seems to have the woodchopper mode as starting point, but sometimes he brings forward more interesting things. Unfortunately 2: Frank Borneman's voice is weaker than ever and the monotonous way of delivering in those tracks makes them a bit forgettable. This doesn't prevent the album from having a couple of very fine moments.

So, if they want to become a tribute band of their own past work, they're doing a much better job than Yes, but it leaves me rather underwhelmed. It is not as bad though as their previous couple of albums. But I won't buy it.

It's one of those albums which I just can't decide!

I was never listen any of their last albums, I will listen to it…