DIMENSIONAUT

This is a surprisingly rich and moving prog album. The songs are consistently beautifully crafted and most are really special and memorable. The concept is well sustained throughout. It is one of the contemporary prog albums I find myself wanting to listen to most often other than Anderson/Stolt's Invention of Knowledge, but that is a very different genre.... and always with renewed pleasure. Often crossover and neo prog albums interest me rather than really get to me deeply the way the great prog albums of the classic Genesis/Yes/VDG era do.... And I spend too much time thinking "this bit sounds like that bit of that yes or genesis song .... etc). But here the fact it at times sounds like Genesis second era feels right as the guy is Phil Collins's actual son, not some musician imitating another. THis is DNA not plagiarism!!!! .

Independently of any resemblances, the album is as good as modern prog crossover gets. It is easily as good as a good Steven WIlson album for example which is what I guess I would compare the style of this to for people who have not heard it to get an idea of which prog universe this album sits in.. It is a clear heir of the better parts of the second genesis era (it especially reminds me of Duke and then there were three at points..... Undertow in particular ...... , a rather beautiful underrated song and even album in my view, by the way, unliked mostly because it is remembered by fans as a drastic change from what they were used to , while it is actually more similar to Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering than people think)

Back to Dimesionaut: many high points. The two first tracks and I am a dimensionaut are proper symphonic prog Beyond illumination is a beautiful song with a fantastic choris though it is the one that is strangest in that it really sounds like a Phil Collins Genesis song even though it has a slightly out of context Sally Oldfield sounding featured artist on it . It is weird how SImon sounds a little quite a lot like his dad on it Makes you sort of love him like family if you are a Genesis fan!

Writing this makes me want to go and listen to the album yet again. I wish the bad had not split and look forward to the new Simon Collins album hoping it stands up to this.