CLEARLIGHT SYMPHONY

Long before I heard the terms "art rock" or "progressive rock," if you had asked me what kind of music I liked, I would have told you that I like music with a large, full sound. Lots of instruments, lots of musical voices, lots of differing tones and timbres, lots of notes. And then I would have pointed to seminal prog bands like Yes or Genesis as examples of what I meant.

The Clearlight Symphony project takes what I like and exagerates it to an extreme. There are good musical ideas here, but too often they get hidden behind that large, full - shall we say way too busy? - sound. Too many musical voices, too many melodic lines, too many notes.... It is still a good piece of music but it requires far too much effort in listening for only a mediocre reward.

As I like to point out often, the French have never disappointed me in the relatively select company of albums I have from them. Clearlight Symphony is not a disappointment. It just fails to rise much beyond the mediocre. If you are going to try Clearlight, go for the much better Forever Blowing Bubbles first.

Three stars for this.