UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW

A mixed bag of slickly produced rock showcasing LaBrie's iconic voice and Pauly's skills as a composer... not to mention lyrics inspired by the hippest athiest around-- Richard Dawkins. "Unweaving the Rainbow" is a brainy journey through the relevance of evolution, done in enough musical styles to apeal to most anyone on this site, and especially fans of LaBrie's, whose voice dominates the album.

While I am a fan of just about everything presented here, I will say its not without its problems. First off, it's too long, and one or two of the songs get skipped regularily when they come up on my iPod. Moreover, Pauly's heavy playing is grating and not very interesting, coming across as a repetative, bland crunching where more intersting passages are called for in the gaps between LaBrie's singing.

However, the album as a whole has a nice, crisp sound which really shines on the more mellow songs and on the few with big, chrous driven sing-alongs. Pauly's use of synth, effects and keyboards are well placed, creating lots of different moods and themes.

Recommended for fans of LaBrie and anyone that reads Dawkins-- who will probably like this album regardless their musical tastes!

Songwriting: 3 Instrumental Performances: 3 Lyrics/Vocals: 3 Style/Emotion/Replay: 2