Camera Obscura Volume 1 (see review) turned out to be a wonderful album by Legacy Pilots and now I am rather excited about Camera Obscura Volume 2; meaning: is it as good as Volume 1 or maybe even better? On Volume 2 multi-instrumentalist and band leader Frank Us is “assisted” by: drummers Marco Minneman, Kai Weidle and Todd Sucherman, singers Jake Livgren and Finally George, bass guitarist Lars Slowak, and guitarist Seth Hankerson. The album kicks off with an epic song called The Illusion Of Knowing and that one is a monumental complex suite, filled with tempo changes, great melodies, and brilliant vocal performances by Livgren and Liza. Finally George does the lead vocals on three other songs, namely Leave The Prison, Haunted House and I'm Running and his excellent voice adds another great musical dimension to these seventies prog rock songs. Leave The Prison is a melancholic neo prog track, which sometimes reminds me of IQ and Marillion. The final song So Obvious Wile Obscure - great title by the way - is an instrumental one, featuring lots of variety and it is a worthy track to end this magnificent album. So, my humble conclusion is Camera Obscura Volume 1 is slightly better than Camera Obscura Volume 2 and that is mainly because of the brilliant song Afterglow on Volume 1. The songs on Volume 2 are longer, more complex and they certainly have more instrumental passages; however, I “prefer” the songs on Volume 1. That is not to say that Volume 2 is a bad album, certainly not, especially tracks like The Illusion Of Knowing and So Obvious While Obscure are definitely more than excellent neo prog tracks for sure. Listening tip: The Illusion Of Knowing! ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
