PANTA REI

This is an album that really took me by surprise for three essential reasons, it was good, it was consistent and (perhaps most surprisingly) the recording quality was good. I'm not going to say that this is a genre defining record (unless you insist that this is space rock / psychedelia -- in reality this is likely canterbury more than anything else). That being said this is a solid and consistent (if at times a tad hokey record).

The real problem with this record however is that there is little that sets it apart from other records and it is not memorable enough to grab the attention of the listener beyond base enjoyment. Thus, this is an album that falls into the immense category (what I feel the majority of three star ratings are) of "yeah, this is a good album but I'll probably never listen to it again".

I think the best song on here is likely 'Five O'Clock Freak', to me this is the most memorable track but all the songs are solid. It's a shame the band never released more music because there is strong musicianship and songwriting, but, at the end of the day this is a pretty forgettable album that I don't think anyone would call bad but would end up as a shelf-sitter, part of a collection, collecting dust.

3/5 stars