Although as everyone knows my favourite musical genre is progressive rock, I've tried hard not to make this journal concentrate on only that. Despite the fact that my very first album reviewed here was a prog rock one, and despite the preponderance here of that genre I've done my best to include metal, rock, blues, classical, even soul and now pop in my journal to try to keep something here for everyone, not just progheads.
But if I'm to reach my target (and I may not do) of listening to and reviewing all the albums in Progarchives' Top 100 Prog Rock Albums for 2013 by the end of the year, I'm going to have to up my game. That means that I really need to aim to have reviews of at least two of the albums every week, and while that may not be possible or achievable I'd like to work towards that goal.
Of course, no matter how good PA think the albums are, some may not resonate with me and in that case I will only touch upon them in a short, perhaps "Bitesize"-like review: many of the ones I've already listened to are pure instrumental and while I have nothing at all against instrumental music, especially prog instrumentals, it can often be hard to find things to say about such albums; sometimes a shorter review is necessary in those instances.So where the album either doesn't measure up, or I feel it doesn't need or merit a full review I'll be doing a shorter, more concise one, which of course will help me on my way towards that target I've set.
In essence, I intend to try -- that's try --- to post a review each Monday and Friday, but this is by no means certain. Some weeks I may post more, some less, or on different days but in order to try to discipline myself in that regard I'm going to try to keep to that schedule.
That said, this is Wednesday, so go figure huh? Well, the plan is to start doing this properly from next week obviously. I've already listened to about ten of the albums on the lower part of the list and will be writing reviews of them soon, whether they be full ones, or much shorter ones if they either don't measure up to the standard or I feel there's not that much I can say about them.
Today's album, however, is certainly not in the latter category...
Ego --- Millenium --- 2013 (Lynx Music)
Now this one I do know. I’ve been playing this for the last few weeks, and am again shocked to see it so low down on the list. Having originally mistaken it for the long-awaited fifth album from the American AOR band of the same name who impressed me so much with their album “Hourglass” in 2000, I was initially confused by the proggy keyboards, atmospheric sounds and soft guitars, and then wondered why the vocalist sounded … different … Slowly the penny dropped. This was not the American Millenium, but despite spelling their name the same (incorrect) way, with one “n” instead of two, this was a totally different band.
As it happens, I have two of their albums already downloaded but have never listened to either. On the basis of this, I’m going to have to rectify that very soon. Millenium (this Millenium) actually come from Poland --- yes, the land of Riverside and Satellite --- and have been in existence since just before the turn of the, um, millennium. Possibly where they got their name. Discounting live albums and EPs, they have released a total of eight albums in that time, of which this is the latest.
The title track gets us underway, with some nice soft guitar and lush keys, and when it gets going I feel the melody has more than a touch of “Aura”-era Asia (there’s a tongue twister for you!) about it. Powerful guitar from Piotr Płonka leads most of the tune in till at about the third minute vocalist and founder Łukasz Gall comes in, his voice strong and clear with a hint of an accent like you might expect. He’s joined a little while later by guest singer Karolina Leszko and then keyboardist Ryszard Kramarski who puts in a fine shift. This is one of three ten-minute songs on the album, the next one being nine, with only six tracks in total, but not a moment wasted on even one. Every track here is pure twenty-four carat gold. Plonka engages in some Marillion style introspective guitar as the song begins to wind down to its conclusion, then rips off a fine searing solo which treads close to the footsteps of guitar god Dave Gilmour. With a final almost tragic vocal and simple piano line the song comes to a slightly abrupt end, my only quibble with this superb opener.
“Born in '67” recalls the heady days of rock and roll as a picture is painted of a more or less idyllic world --- “
”He spent hours with his friends outside/ No mobiles and no web” --- that is probably being viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of age. Lovely backing vocals from Leszko here and something that sounds like a banjo or mandolin, and some soulful trumpet work from guest musician Michał Bylica which really helps this song take off. There’s a real sense of loss and regret in this song, as of the passing of something that will never return. As Gall sings
”It’s so hard to find a friendly soul/ In the ocean of despair” you can feel his frustration for the way things have gone.
I do have a small, slight problem with this song. Gall sings about how great it was to be born
"With the Beatles rocking tracks" but anyone born in that year would not be able to appreciate either the music or the times till they were at least, what, six or seven? So 1973 at the earliest. Therefore to go on about how great it was in 1967 is a little off the mark: I was born in '63 but don't remember the Kennedy assassination for instance. Maybe he means it more as a kind of imprint on the soul, if such things exist? Anyway it's a small complaint but something that makes it a little harder for me to take the lyric too earnestly.
A great keyboard motif rides along the guitar line, with a superb little sax break from yet another guest, horn player Darek Rybka as the song heads towards its conclusion and into what I suppose I would call another standout, except that this is literally an album of six standouts. I really can’t find one track I don’t like, and while I like one or two more than the others, there’s nothing here that’s not immense. With a sort of country-style acoustic guitar "Dark secrets" turns a little harder fairly quickly, mostly on the keyboard work of Kramarski, including some beautifully minimalist piano, very Nick Cave at moments. A searing solo from Plonka takes the song, then we return to the kind of country feel before it heads off again on a heavier line. Kramarski then leads with a stunning lush solo on the keys which brings us to the midpoint of the track, Karolina Leszko again lending her voice to the backing vocals before the tempo ramps completely up, and on first keys then guitar we get what I can only describe as a prog take on Southern Boogie. This is just incredible and unexpected and carries the tune almost to its end, where it finishes with a staccato rhythm which reminds me of Genesis’s “The musical box”, then fades out on an ultimately unsatisfying piano line and soft vocal.
The ballad comes in the shape of “When I fall”, and gives Leszko finally the chance to really show what she can do, as she partners Gall here in the chorus and complements him perfectly against the backdrop of Kramarski’s melancholy piano. Emotional and effective strings synth ramps the piece up and stirs the passion, then about halfway through Plonka winds up his guitar and ups the tempo of the song, though it falls back on a repeated fading vocal line very reminiscent of Floyd. Soft piano takes over again with the synth backing it with the strings sound, and we move into one of the standsouts among the standouts. “Lonely man” has a driving beat but a dreamy innocence about the guitar, recalling everything from the Alan Parsons Project to the Beatles and early ELO. A lovely violin-like synth introduces the song which then gets going on acoustic guitar and some sleek percussion from Tomasz Paśko.
It’s another long song --- ten minutes and change --- but again not a moment of it is wasted or unnecessary. The overall melody is heartbreakingly lovely, and interestingly almost every line begins with the two words that make up the title. Karolina Leszko is back again to add soft angelic backing vocals, and some pastoral flute-like synth gives the song a gentle early Genesis feeling. Rybka adds another sumptuous sax solo that just wrenches the emotion from you and completes the song, and in the seventh minute, following that solo, Laszko takes over the lead vocal, switching with Gall as the song grows in power and intensity. Some thick organ from Kramarski is joined by a sweet solo from Plonka and again my only problem with the song is that it ends, after building to a real crescendo, too abruptly. A common failing, it would appear, with this band, or at least this album.
The closer is another ten-minute track, and does not disappoint as “Goodbye my Earth” sees us out in fine style. With a big guitar opening that reminds me very much of “Immortal?”-era Arena, dark synth then backs Gall as he sings about the end of things, bookending the album as it began with a newborn trying to come to terms with his life, a real life cycle. Karolina Laszko gives a final, terrific performance on the chorus here, backed only by Plonka’s acoustic guitar, then the song gets more passionate in the last five minutes as both Gall and Laskzo join together, with Kramarski adding in some very Supertramp-like Fender Rhodes in a boogie style. The vocal is then run through a vocoder for some reason, the voice I assume to be Gall’s, while Kramarski riffs off another fine solo on the keys before Plonka goes all rock on the guitar, screeching out a solo that would please the most ardent metalhead. Maybe.
Everything finally comes down with Kramarski’s strings-like synth and hard guitar from Plonka and it all fades down until only the lonely piano line is left, slowly drifting away like the last vestiges of a soul leaving the body.
TRACKLISTING
1. Ego
2. Born in ‘67
3. Dark secrets
4. When I fall
5. Lonely man
6. Goodbye my Earth
Poland is fast becoming --- or has already become --- the centre for new, dynamic progressive rock and it looks like remaining that way. It has been perhaps an unlikely quarter to expect prog rock to come from, as there is no real history there but bands like Riverside, Satellite, Votum, Paradox and others have made it one of the freshest places for prog, virtually a breeding ground there. Like Scandinavia birthed, or rebirthed the black metal revival, prog rock is now having its second coming in Poland.
There is, as I have said, very little I can find fault with on this album. There are no bad tracks. None. If I have to pick holes it would be with Millenium’s annoying tendency to set you up for a really good ending to a song and then just stop, as they do three or four times here. But that’s a small complaint and everything up to that disappointing ending on this album has been next to perfect. Everyone knows their place and their function. Most of the band members play only the one instrument --- or in Gall’s case, sing --- and don’t burden themselves, as many of their contemporaries do, with trying to fulfill several roles at once. Concentrate on what you’re good at: it’s a maxim that certainly works for Millenium, and here they’ve crafted, in my view, close to the perfect progressive rock album.
I therefore have no hesitation in awarding this the highest rating I have yet, a serious
9.7/10.