ECHOES

This last Cyan album to-date is actually more a compilation effort than a new studio release. Four songs come out their debut album "For King And Country" while another three were released on "Pictures From The Other Side". They did already this sort of exercise with the album "Remastered" in 1997. Actually, this one is a remastering (and rework) of the remaining songs of these two albums that were not present in their first compilation.

This means that out of two studio albums, Cyan released two compilation ones. This is mainly due to the fact that their previous record label went bankrupt and that Cyan wanted to make their material available again. I guess that I can live with this explanation.

There will be three new songs here : "Cyan", the opening number. It is an intrumental (like many Cyan tracks) which sounds very much like Genesis when they were four. Lots of keyboards and very strong bass (maybe a bit too invasive). An average and apparently a very old song which was never released (this almost always mean something...).

The other two sit at the end of the album. They are songs from the sessions of their previous studio album "The Creeping Vine" which didn't make their entry. "Charm The Snake" is a short song which is fully Gabriel oriented. A nice song which might have some link with"Harold The Barrel". It is the best of the new tracks featured on "Echoes". "Jimmy The Tank" is dispensible.

My favourites songs from this compilation are "Man Amongst Men" which features beautiful harmonies & crying guitar. It is totally "Pendragon" oriented with vocals a la Nick Barrett (like in "I Defy The Sun"). Maybe a tribute to a man (Nick) without whom Cyan would maybe never have recorded an album (you can read the full story in my review for their debut effort).

The other great song is "Solitary Angel". For once, vocals are the highlight here. Completely reminiscent of David Surkamp ("Pavlov's Dog"). I guess that either you love or hate these vocals. I belong to the former category.

This album is good but of course not essential for a penny (or ? cent if you prefer).