THE GREEN EARTH

Magus is basically Andrew Robinson with a variety of contributing musicians. While "The Green Earth" features some decent spacey prog in a lite Pink Floyd/Alan Parsons way, it has several weaknesses that prevent me from giving it a thumbs up.

Firstly, while I normally have high tolerance for programmed percussion, the drum machine in tracks like "Illuminati" and "The Man Who Killed the River" just adds to the synthesized sound when what was needed was something more organic. Then, when we get something warm like "I am the Sun", my normally high tolerance for simplistic lyrics is breached. They sound like something from the pen of an acne-ridden high school student. "The Shepherd" is also indicative of the general problem sometimes experienced with solo recordings, an unimaginative instrumental that consists of a routine sequence on synths. Luckily, "Sea Without a Shore" dispenses with the above irritants and conjures a mysterious atmosphere, and, even though "Stranded" resorts to some poetic cliches, it passes muster thanks to a beautiful melody and phonetic whispered vocal style. In general the production is crisp, although it could be considered overly so to some.

Although the effort is there, this Magus album might be more aptly called "The Digital Earth". If the automation could be toned down a bit and more emphasis placed on songwriting and composition, a considerable improvement would result.