WANTED

In "Wanted" RPWL borrow a Greek-antiquity concept of the "gift of absolute freedom" and create a new philosophy on how this might apply to the modern world and especially in the context of how organised religion and being religious (in the modern sense) may hinder the individual from reaching this state of "freedom"; regardless of whether Plato had that in mind when talking about Hippocrates' methods or not, RPWL, "Wanted" by the world religion churches, go on a conceptual journey (or mission) in this album (and finally succeed) to free the world from the "blindness" and "intolerance" of religion.

"The RPWL Experience" was my first with the band, from which I remember the music hovering about a more toned-down Porcupine Tree approach, having little to do with Neo-Prog as such. Almost the same could be said musically about this release: the album's sound is closer to what we would call "Crossover Prog", with a strong resemblance to late 70's/80's Pink Floyd and especially the warm tone of David Gilmour on vocals and guitars (especially on the middle section, see 'Hide And Seek', 'Disbelief', 'Misguided Thought'). When the band decide to add some distortion, they do so by mixing a heavy-blues sound with Porcupine Tree ('Disbelief', 'The Attack') that certainly adds points in terms of variety. Disappointingly, there is a large amount of mainstream pop-prog ('Swords and Guns', 'Wanted', 'Perfect Day'), which certainly curtails the efforts for originality and innovation, revealing the "Achilles' heel" of this release.

The Hogarth-era Marillion-balladry style of numbers such as 'A New Dawn' left me initially with a general feeling of disappointment about "Wanted", but on subsequent spins the musicianship got me convinced of its credentials, with the instrumental interesting opener 'Revelation' and the dark-ish 'Hide and Seek' and 'The Attack' standing a bit above the others. The keyboard passages, when apparent, certainly give a note of innovation and variety and would certainly have liked to have more of it in this album.

A good, solid release from RPWL, but not as exciting as it promises to be, "Wanted" would appeal to fans of "lite", melodic prog.