Lighter Than Air is the second album by the Dutch prog rock band The One, which features three Dutch musicians and three English musicians. The One's sound is definitely neo prog rock and right from the start you can hear obvious influences from well-known neo prog bands. The One's second album starts with the title track, which is in fact a laid back neo prog rock song, featuring nice melodies that make me think of Kayak, IQ, and Pendragon. Follow up Paint It Red is an up-tempo song, while The Wolf is a piano led power ballad featuring a wonderful soaring guitar solo. South Of Cookham Wood is a typical prog rock ballad displaying the excellent emotional vocals of Max Gilkes and this song almost takes me back to the wonderful seventies, and the soaring guitar solo here is definitely worth mentioning indeed! I'll Be Gone is the next song and this one is very diverse as this semi-ballad turns into an up tempo rocker halfway, while closing track The Beautiful Lie is again a nice prog rock gem with a massive neo prog sound in the veins of IQ and Pendragon. Lighter Than Air is a classic neo prog rock little masterpiece with beautiful melodies and solos galore, excellent vocals and very skilled musicianship indeed. So, for fans of bands like IQ, Pallas, Kayak, Pendragon, Arena and even Enchant this is almost a must have album indeed! Listening tip: Juno! **** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
