A WORD IN YOUR EYE

I almost forgot I had this very nice release by The Lens laying somewhere around here waiting to be reviewed. The Lens is a sort of predecessor of IQ as we can read in the band description. I will not repeat the history Ivan has written down there but most interesting thing to realize is that though this album was released in 2001 the material is actually from the period before IQ was even founded in 1981, so late 70's is what you will have to think of.

Ivan also wrote the material is interesting and I agree with him. The songs are all instrumental with exception of Childhood's End which contains a bit of vocals done by Martin Orford. A very nice track this by the way with very fine sax play by Tony Wright. The rest of the tracks are all just about of the same quality but not really in the same style. Most of the songs are calm and ambient (with a touch of prog folk in some occasions) but some are more energetic, at least for parts of them. Like Frost and Fire for instance where first half of the song is quiet and second half (as title suggests) much more spicy.

So all things considered an interesting album to add to your collection. 90% is played and composed by IQ members so IQ fans are invited to take a chance here I'd say. But any fan of very nice, good quality instrumental neo prog could go for this one really. Recommended. 4* (rounded up from 3,75).