((SPEAK))

Like the precious version of Nick Drake's Pink Moon, the fantastic Steve Wilson's guitar melodies on Heaven's Break, the melancholic quality of songs like River Song, Riverrun and The Ballet Beast... Or the very worthy track Night Sky Sweet Earth.

After the bunch of remasters, re-recordings and remixes this compilation has suffered through the years, Wilson and Bowness have managed to create an album wich sounds homogene, and very coherent. It can be heared like a independent band's studio album, and it works surprisingly well! The style of the album moves from the spacy electronic moments (Irish Murdoch Cut me Down, Heaven's Break...) to slow and ambiental songs (River Song, Curtain Dream...), mixed up with pure string-sounding psichedelia (Speak, French Tree Terror Suspect, Life With Picasso...), building a good and worthy album, wich has the trademark of this Steve Wilson's side project.

Best tracks: Curtain Dream (the typical No-Man sound, with only the Wilson's guitar and the whispering Bowness's voice...), River Song, Riverrun and The Ballet Beast (three similar songs: melancholic, slow and ambiental, with the protagonism of the guitars and Bowness's vocals...) and Night Sky Sweet Earth (good guitar armonics, and a catchy chorus... With some 70's influences, like the Wilson's vocal harmonies).

Conclusion: if you like No-Man, or you are a Steve Wilson's fan, I can sincerely recommend you this album... Because being not the best release in wich this man was involved, it has enough good moments to make you enjoy the listening. It was the first No-Man album I heard, and I was caught by the beauty of this fine remastered collection of early No-Man's songs. A collection wich is, in my humble opinion, better than On the Sunday of Life, an album with a similar concept, but less interesting and not so coherent.

My rating: ***

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