SOMERSAULT

You know the kind of albuns where everything seems to be good and still you don´t fancy them that much? The same thing happens to me on titles like Uriah Heep´s Return To Fantasy, for example. Something´s missing and you can´t figure out what it is. For every time I put Somersault on I do like the songs. Especially if I listen carefully. But t me is one of Jadis least successful works. Ok, the line up changed but I believe it´s not the newbies fault. By the time the band have to record this CD both IQ members Martin Orford and Jon Jowitt had commitments to their main group and could not be around. Keyboardist Mike Torr took over Orford´s duties and bassist Steve Hunt replaced Jowitt. And the new duo does a fine job here.Sometimes they even excel and do have more room to show their skills then the previous ones. Gary Chandler and Steve Christey are in fine form. The production is also excellent. So I made an attempt to solve this case by carefully listening to the record exclusively for a few days.

To me Somersault´s main problem is about the songwriting: it´s their most dense and less accessible work to date. Like if they want to complicate things for the sake of it. Or so it seems. On the other hand it is also undeniable that there is no bad song here either. Upon listening carefully you discover that you like the album after all and that al the tracks have their charm. Some even deserved a little more attention by the public in general like Losing My Fear and Tomorrow Always Arrive. Certainly they are both the album´s highlights and, not coincidentally, the most melodic and the closest to their previous work. The other tracks are also good, with several strong moments on them. Chandlers guitar solos are maybe less inspired than before, but Torr´s keyboards are very creative and quete unique. Still it looks like they tried to bit more than they could chew, some parts just dragging too long affecting the CD´s flow. Long tunes don´t mean necessarily good ones.

Conclusion: I still think that Somersault´s tracks are, individually, very good, buy their running order and maybe the lack of a really powerful, memorable song makes it sound less good then it is. So in the end I can say it sounds actually better than I initially thought. So my rating would be be something between 3,5 and 4 stars. Compared to their more popular albums this is surely a less pleasant one. So I guess 3 stars is a fair grade. It is good, most of the time very good, but not as striking and captive as the bands previous work, or its follow up, 2000´s Understand. .