NETWORK

Network is (mostly) "just another Saga album", but while in the 80's and 90's a new Saga album could be hit or miss, in the 00's, however, "just another Saga album" always meant another good Saga album. The previous three albums had seen Saga returning to the sound of their early days and on the previous album they completed the 16-part "chapters" song cycle that was started already back in 1978. What to do next? Could they maintain the momentum they had been building up since Full Circle? Would they finally do something different for a change? Well, as I implied already above, they opted for an album in pretty much the same style and quality as the previous three with some slight alterations.

Some Pink Floyd-ish Radio/ TV dialogues open the first song of what seem to be a loosely conceptual album (about television?). Maybe fans of Queensrÿche would enjoy this album more than most other Saga albums? It is a very far cry from the conceptual masterpiece Generation 13, but Network does seem to be slightly heavier, darker and harder-edged compared to the three previous albums - a direction Saga would continue and develop further on powerful albums like 10.000 Days and The Human Condition. Despite these slight changes in sound, the same typical, catchy melodies and often cheesy lyrics that we have come to expect from Saga make up the bulk of this album. Apart from the slightly longer opening and closing numbers, all the songs here are between three and a half and five minutes. There is not much space for instrumental workouts and the songs are rather conventional in structure. Only On The Air stands out as above the rest.

This album is on par with their previous one and a worthy album in its own right. It was another entry in the long series of good albums Saga did in the new millennium, but not the best of these.

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