All right then, on to the second example I’m going to take. I’m reliably informed this is one of their best regarded, and it comes two years after the previous one. It also has the hit “Wind Him Up”, which I’ve heard of, but not heard, and two more of those Chapters things. Let’s see if this changes my mind, or reinforces it.
Worlds Apart (1981)
I don’t want to judge an album by its cover, but my god it’s pretty awful. I had to check twice to see what it is: seems to be some sort of sorcerer or demonic guy holding a map while everything either explodes or steam covers everything. What’s the idea there I wonder? Do I wonder? Not really. Don’t care. It’s certainly a step down from the first album I looked at, in terms of covers. Very unattractive. Well, let’s see what the music is like.
Got a bit more of a punch to it as it begins, kind of a military beat to “On the Loose”, which was a hit, and I see it says Michael Sadler, the singer who annoyed me so much on the previous album, changed his vocal style at the urging of the producer. Much better. It’s very early, of course, but does this sound prog to me? At this particular moment, not really, but it has a certain charm. Not sure what makes it so much better than any of the previous Saga songs that it became a hit, but whatever. There is a more mature sense about it, so that’s something. Still using that APP main melody though. Hmm. “Wind Him Up” is next, and apparently this became a hit - mostly in Canada - due more or less to its heavy rotation on MTV. That can be a good or a bad thing: if the song became a hit because people liked the video the song itself may not be that good. Of course, it could also be that both are good. That stuttery riff runs through this track as well, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mhNM4XqTN4
It’s decent, perhaps even better than decent. Is it changing my mind about Saga? The jury are still in the box, never mind retired to consider a verdict. Evidence is still being presented, Your Honour. “Wind Him Up” is another playful, boppy, uptempo song but again it froths rather than slays, for me anyway. I will admit that I was singing “Mouse in a Maze” this morning, so they’ve made some impression on me. That was the last album, of course. Can this one do something similar? Well, “Amnesia” is slower, and conjures up, of all things, images of 80s Genesis, around the time of the self-titled oh no it doesn’t, just went into another bippity-boppity rhythm which robs it of the sort of gravitas it was beginning to attain. Meh. And meh to the next one too. A common problem with bands like this, with me anyway, is that songs tend to blend together and I can never remember any of them after the album is over. This is not an issue with bands like Arena, Threshold, Marillion, Big Big Train and a hundred others. I take it as an indication that, to me at any rate, the band, and possibly the album(s) is or are not very interesting, at least not enough to keep my attention.
This one is called “Framed” and the only real thing I can tell you about it, other than being yet another uptempo pop/rocky thing is that there’s a very annoying voiceover about people being framed, and then a pretty decent guitar solo and instrumental part, which almost, but not quite, saves the song. Other than that, like a lot here, it’s more or less passed me by. “Time’s Up” isn’t bad, to be fair, but again it’s not going to remain in my head afterwards. “The Interview” has a return to that tougher, marching beat the opener had, and the arpeggios are good. I’d actually say it’s the first really good track on the album to date.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYA6ZXjkow
Okay, “No Regrets”, the first (only?) ballad is pretty damn fine, and I’d say close to being the first song of theirs I would consider truly progressive rock in its style. I like that one a lot. Great ambient sounds, kind of tubular bells somewhere in there too, and the vocal really suits the music. So two good tracks one after the other: are they going for a big finish here? Let’s see. Oh, and that’s one of the Chapters things, if you care. Next up we have “Conversations”, which has a sort of confused speech thing at the beginning; not exactly ground-breaking but at least it fits in with the title. Good opening instrumental - or is it all instrumental? Again very much more prog rock here, perhaps Saga are beginning to come of age. I don’t know if this would be classed as an instrumental, but the only vocals on it are the - presumably taped - snatches of discussion and talking going on, so maybe.
The closer then finally gets a little closer to the kind of song length you might be expecting on a prog album, though at just seven minutes it’s not quite what you’d call an epic. Not that length of track equals quality, but just generally, when I’m looking at new albums that are - sometimes mistakenly or undeservingly - labelled as prog, I do often tend to check the track lengths. It’s not the only yardstick by which I measure prog, of course, but overall, in a general sense, you don’t find too many other genres with songs over ten minutes, apart from maybe Atmospheric Black Metal, Ambient and a few others. “No Stranger”, then, opens with some sort of dark chant going on, quite moody in its atmosphere, slowburner perhaps, and it’s another of those Chapters. It’s, well, it’s all right, but it goes through too many changes and certainly does not leave me singing it at the end like I was with the last album’s closer.
Track listing
On the Loose
Wind Him Up
Amnesia
Framed
Time’s Up
The Interview
No Regrets (Chapter Five)
Conversations
No Stranger (Chapter Eight)
I can see a little more promise in this one, at least on the second side, says he, showing his age. But I’m still not convinced. I had hoped for a big blockbuster ending, and what I got was a fairly half-decent but in the end limpwristed shrug. So it seems to me anyway. Still, there are a few good tracks here, but like they say, in the same way that a few good tracks don’t make a good album, one good album (which I’m not convinced this is) does not make a good band. And this being acknowledged as their best, most commercially successful and loved album, kind of makes it look to me as if there’s only one way to go from here, and that’s down.
You want me to say it, don't you? Go on, admit it. All right, I will. I'll say it.
At this point, it seems Saga and myself are still... worlds apart.
Bum-tish!
Has anything on this album impressed me at all? Oh yeah. Much more than the previous one. I liked “No Regrets” and “The Interview”, though “Framed” (despite the very decent instrumental section) and “Conversations” both annoyed me, and I was disappointed by the closer. Overall though, I'd say this is a more progressive rock album than the other one. A step in the right direction, but we've a long way to go yet.
Result for this album: 
Result so far: 