BROKEN HOPES

For Polish neo prog group ALBION, the years between 2005 and 2007 whelped an explosion of activity after a decade of somnolence. First up was a superb Polish language release with a new vocalist, followed by a remastering of their first 2 albums from the 1990s in one package, and finally back to English lyrics with "Broken Hopes".

This is another brilliantly arranged and played offering, with more of a focus on the searingly melodic lead guitar of Jurek Antczak, but with chunky dollops of spacey keyboards, mostly synths. I'd say, while it's of consistent high caliber, it lacks the couple of killer cuts present on its predecessor. Continental influences include SATELLITE and CLEPSYDRA. The theme, enunciated through injected, at times, irritating voice clips of 20th century leaders in the two epic tracks, seems to be how are lives are manipulated by those leaders for good and evil. But honestly the lyrics might as well be in Polish because I endure long stretches without making out a single word let alone a sentence. Katarzyna's voice is just fine as instrument though, particularly on the hard rock moments in "Angel" and "I am", but in the dreamier numbers we often don't realize she has been singing until the incendiary solos begin. "near the End" is actually at the end and it marks the second album in a row that is serenaded off with a lighter almost folkie number. Yessssssss!

"Broken Hopes" is a another sweet sounding effort by ALBION which is unlikely to disappoint fans of this style.