SOMEWHERE BUT YESTERDAY

When first putting the CD on and glancing through the lyric sheet, I was a bit confused though as there are some words written down for what appears to be a track called 'Preface', which doesn't seem to appear to be on the album, but there is an instrumental played before 'Jonny Had Another Face' comes in, which may or may not be 'Preface'.

Anyway moving on, the first track is 'Jonny Had Another Face', which is an excellent track, complex, but thoroughly entertaining, lasting some ten and a half minutes. This is one of those tracks that grabs your attention straight away, the music wanders through many different moods, with some wonderful keyboards and guitar, while Cyrus's vocals are reminiscent to Peter Gabriel's GENESIS early '70's period. Towards the end the track changes and moves into 'Parallel Lines', I am not sure if this is supposed to be part of "Jonny." or whether it's a separate track, it works as either.

'Junks and Donuts' is another highly complex track, though appears to be a slightly quieter track, starting with some nice classical guitar, changes to electric and Cyrus's vocals come in. Already you can sense a strong melody. All of a sudden heavy guitar and keyboards come in, but only for a short time. There are many changes in direction, mood and tempo throughout this track and it has its moments when the band are really rocking. There's some nice flute parts in a similar vein to early Genesis and JETHRO TULL.

Another tagged on track 'An Afterthought', a very short track at 21 secs with strange lyrics. This leads to the next track 'To Dance The Enamel-Faced Quee' this track has a superb bass line and some highly complex keyboards. The tempo of this track is constantly changing, but most of the time it's played at a fairly quick pace. Great guitar and stunning keyboards. Now comes the longest track on the album at a mere 25 minutes, the title track 'Somewhere but yesterday', divided into six sections: 'Owls'. 'Obsessions', 'The Ballad of Creepy John', 'Echoes-The Labyrinth Penunbra', 'All the Sin's Men' and 'Farewell'.

'Owls', starts off with fade in keyboards, and then some intricate guitar. Cyrus's vocals again are reminiscent of Peter GABRIEL, but this is nice, soft and inviting. 'Obsessions', great bass, strong keyboards and great guitar. Vocals are superb and there's a strong melody and catchy chorus. Nice changes in direction, mood and tempo. 'The Ballad of Creepy John', this track starts off with the vocals sounding like a nursery rhyme, then goes into the track properly, nice track that kinda creepy (creepy John is a spider) 'Echoes - The Labyrinth Penunbra', intricate guitars, atmospheric keyboards and soothing flute while the drums play in a military style. When the vocals come in there's a double set of lyrics that come at you from different speakers. 'All The Sin's Men', starting with some stunning guitar work and nice keyboards and then there's a nice combination/interaction between keyboards and guitar, the Cyrus comes in with his version of the Lord's Prayer. 'Farewell' is more emotional, great vocals, guitar and keyboards with the end of the track fading to the sound of a piano and keyboards.

'A Word In Your Ear', sees some House of Lords speaker waffling on about "the role of the multi national company" before "retiring to the pub" with pubs sounds and a Yorkshire poet quoting some prose. The final track is 'Strange Barbarians', on this track there are some strong keyboards, powerful vocals from Cyrus. There some great bass going on and there's a few other influences on this track, VDGG and CAMEL, this sequel into 'The Mother's Shroud', this track is around two and a half minutes long with Cyrus's vocals sounding more like a preacher and some stunning guitar work and then the whole thing ends with the sound of an explosion and the for the last minute there is just the sound of wind effects, and the right at the end, you get an unexpected one off chord. If you set your CD player to loop you will see that this chord fits in with a similar chord at the start of the album.

This is one of those albums that grows on you, now I am not saying that I didn't like tit the first time I played it, in fact I thought it was good, but now after listening to it several times I think it is a stunning album, the more you play it the more you'll like it. This is an album for all progrock fans and lovers of early GENESIS, Go out and buy!