A WORD IN YOUR EYE

The Lens is a band that consist of some members of IQ; Martin Orford, Michael Holmes and Paul Cook. The roots of the band apparently go all the way back to the mid 70's, even if this, their sole album, A Word In Your Eye, was released in 2001. The Lens is thus both a pre-IQ band and a side-project. The music itself, however, has little to do with that of IQ. A Word In Your Eye reminds more of Jadis, another IQ-related band. Similarities with Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Steve Hackett (but a Steve Hackett on sleeping pills, really!), Solstice and others can also be detected. Maybe even a bit of Vangelis! The instruments involved are keyboards, flute, electric and acoustic guitars, bass and drums and competently played. There is also saxophone on one track, creating a kind of lounge-Jazz feeling!

This album is not wholly instrumental (as some other reviewers have said), but almost entirely instrumental. The sparse and discrete vocals are apparently by Martin Orford and there are also some Pink Floyd-like spoken word samples in the background reminding of those on Dark Side Of The Moon. There are only occasional outbursts of Neo-Prog "flash", but for most of the time the music here is slow and very soothing and relaxed. There are some nice acoustic guitar passages (occasionally sounding a bit like those New-Age albums Steve Howe did with Paul Sutin). Everything here sounds great, but despite the lovely sounds they produce, the music overall tends to lack direction. The result is indeed pleasant, but very unremarkable and unmemorable (like much of Jadis output). This is the kind of music you will want to have in the background while reading, but not something for serious listening.

This can really only be recommended for collectors of everything related to IQ or maybe also to those with a special interest in the lighter side of instrumental Prog (even if I can think of many better examples of that kind of music)

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