THE TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD

This "project" could hardly move me even with their debut when it was released a long time ago. No need to tell you how I felt about their previous "Eve" album. So, what do we get here? Well, nothing too fancy unfortunately.

Lots of orchestrations, disco sounds and alike. But I don't like these alikes. Being the opener "Maybe A Price To Pay" or these "Games People Play". Poor stuff indeed. Well produced (that's the minimum one can expect from these guys) but emotionless and boooooring. Unless you like the disco beats which is absolutely not my case. Add a funky feel to "Don't Wanna Go Home" to get the global picture. Press next IS the best option for sure.

Some romantic moments break the overall mood and are welcome ("Time"), but this is second-hand ELO from the eighties (at best). Which means?I guess you know.

The B-side was somewhat better (not difficult): a good instrumental à la "Money" from whom you know ("The Gold Bug") that features an excellent sax part (which is the best track by far as far as I'm concerned) and a sixteen minutes title track-suite which has its good (few) and below average (quite a bunch) moments.

At least some short prog moments can be experienced: crafted vocals (but those were never a problem), discreet orchestrations, theme changes of course (with some weak parts as the dreadful "Snake Eye"), some medieval sounds ("Ace Of Swords"), mellowish mood ("Nothing Left to Lose") and finally back to square one with the second part of the title track (which was also the best one).

Very little overall to bring any major enthusiasm from your devotee. I rate it with two stars, but I am not quite sure why.