THE MEETING

The Meeting was Aragon's second album, following the promising but immature debut Don't Bring The Rain. Interestingly, the contents of the present album constitutes act five of a much longer conceptual album called Mouse (that would be released in its full form as a double CD in 1999). Probably, the band felt they needed something to release to retain interest in the band at this point (that is, in 1992) even though the whole of Mouse was not ready for release at that time. I should say upfront that this review is based on the last six tracks of disc one of Mouse rather than on the original release of The Meeting (the tracks are identical, but the more recent release has been remastered). Another thing to note is that act five (that is, the music featured on this release) is by far the best part of Mouse (in fact, the rest of Mouse is very disappointing but I will get to that in a later review).

Compared to the band's debut album, this second release was a major improvement both in terms of composition and production. The sound (at least on my remastered version) is clear and powerful here and almost all of the songs are of very high quality. Aragon are hardly the most original band you'll ever hear, but I do think that they have something of their own. The musical influences certainly include Genesis, both the more progressive 70's Genesis and the more commercial 80's/90's Genesis. The latter's influence can, for example, be felt in the more rhythmic approach in The Chant and other tracks. The lead vocals of Les Dougan resemble those of Geddy Lee of Rush (but Dougan is more versatile, to be honest), and it is fair to say that that band also has an influence on the music of Aragon, particularly the late 70's/early 80's period of Rush.

There is a nice diversity to this album with two pleasant acoustically based numbers in the middle in Midsummer's Night Dream and Tugging At The Heartstring. Apart from the almost ten minute The Changeling, most of the songs here are of the shorter variety. The album as a whole is also very short. Clocking in at only 27 minutes, it is really more of an EP than a full length studio album. Still, this is certainly a worthwhile set of songs.

The only way to get hold of these tracks now is, I suppose, through buying the full Mouse album (of which, as I said above, The Meeting is but one - the best - part).

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