WHEEL OF LIFE

Inspired by the experience of yesterday when I got ecstatic about the latest by this band I suddenly realized I hadn't done the review of this album yet. A shame actually because it was sheer neglect in this case, I should have done it long time ago. And it has nothing to do with lack of quality of this album because the quality is high and then it's usually a lot of fun doing the review.

But because I already know the extreme level of Karmakanic's latest I can already state that as the averages show this isn't of the same high standard. In my mind it was very good though and right now I'm playing it one last time to give the most accurate review possible.

Masterplan pt.1 is a varied epical track with lots of fast keyboardplaying by Richard Anderson, especially in the first half of the song. After this a slow vocal part gives a total new direction to the song. Last few minutes keyboards take over again before vocals do the conclusion. A very keyboard dominated song obviously, original composition (4,25*).

Next is Alex in Paradise, a much shorter song, much more accessible too almost popular. It suddenly hits me that Jonas and Inger Ohlen probably have something with paradise (just the word or the meaning behind it ?) because on the debut we had Welcome to Paradise on this album the song we have here and on Who's the Boss the word comes back in Send a Message from the Heart. Obsession, coincidence ? Only the brothers know. Nice song this by the way (3,25*).

At the speed of light is somewhat longer again and much more electric guitar dominated than the first two, great guitar by the way. Another good/very good song, bit better than previous (3,5*).

Do you Tango ? I always considered this a pretty strange one, for a change this one is more of a bass song accompanied by acoustic guitar and keyboards. It's a pretty fast song, mainly instrumental (just a lady asking: excuse me, do you tango ? I want to dance a few times) with Jonas giving his best shot here (3,25*).

5th track it's epic time again and to me this is the album's highlight: Where Earth meets the Sky. For me the tough job to explain why it's better than the opening epic. Not easy, this one is more like one flowing song, better melody, simply a better composition, a true classic for me. Of all songs (also including Who's the Boss!) this is Goran Edmans best performance; here he proves he's an outstanding vocalist but also the instrumental contribution is excellent (4,5*).

Hindby is a guitar instrumental, much slower than we are used to by Karmakanic but very well executed without being outstanding (3,5*).

The title track is the most cheerful track of the album, accessible, positive, optimistic, nice flute, nice vocals, those are the keywords in this song. It resembles to Moon Safari, another fine Swedish band. I like the song but it's not the highlight of the album for me (3,75*).

Last song is Masterplan pt.2, a very nice ballad-like but not really impressive closer of the album (3,5*)

The whole thing is a very enjoyable listening for over an hour, no really weak tracks but not many highlights either. The album is better than the debut but by far not as great as the latest, Who's the Boss in the Factory ? But if you like the other two by Karmakanic and certainly if you are a bit of a fan of them, this is a must have. 4 stars (3,7).