N'MONIX

Four years after the very good Children Of Another God, Nick Magnus has released a new album in a similar vein. Many of the same people are involved again this time, including Steve Hackett - with whom Magnus used to play in the late 70's and early 80's on albums like Spectral Mornings, Defector, and Highly Strung - and Pete Hicks who also sang on some of Hackett's early albums. Tony Patterson, who sang some of the best songs on Children Of Another God, is also singing some songs here. Patterson has a rather Peter Gabriel-like voice and Gabriel-era Genesis is indeed a noticeable influence on the music of N'Monix. Other apparent musical influences include Gentle Giant, Alan Parsons Project, and The Beatles. Not surprisingly, some of the classic Hackett albums also provide a good reference point.

The opener Time is the album's best track in my opinion and it holds up well in comparison with the better songs off Children Of Another God. The same could be said about a couple of the other songs here, but overall N'Monix is not as good as Children Of Another God (but the cover art is much improved here!). Memory is out of place here with its high female vocals and Classical music, non-Rock sound. The next three tracks are all good though, Kombat Kid beginning in Neo-Classical territory but changes into full-on Gabriel-era Genesis style. Eminent Victorians also has some of the whimsy of Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, and Headcase reminds me of some of Gentle Giant's "bouncy" tunes.

The final three tracks of the album slows things down considerably and I feel that, even though they are all of good quality, the album feels a bit "thin" towards the end. After the lovely Broken it feels as if they've already offered their best and that the rest is less essential. Also, with the exception of the misplaced Memory, all of the more Rocking tracks come at the first half or so of the album and this makes the rest come across as being not entirely connected to what went before. Perhaps, I would have arranged the tracks in a different order. But this is not major criticism, there are several eminently good moments even in this part of the album. The instrumental Shadowland reminds me of Brian May's Bijou from Queen's Innuendo album.

I learned some interesting facts that I did not know before from this educational album, for example that Richard of York was addicted to a video game and that old people from Texas eat spiders!

Recommended, but get Children Of Another God first; the latter is Magnus's best solo album.

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