Once again relying on an impeccable production and a high quality mix, the album starts on the same bases as its predecessor in a polymorphic progressive rock made of tortured contractions and focused on a strong narrative conception. The Argentines tell their music, and the story is the thread that leads the melodic structure of the tracks. Santiago Burgi’s sometimes slightly overplayed singing has clearly progressed and the expressiveness is now at the service of the music, even if it undergoes some ways reminiscent of the rock opera works of a Paolo Vallerga and a certain not always unpleasant theatricality on ‘Call Now’ in particular.
Fughu has considerably varied his music, always to serve the intrigue. ‘Stay’, for example, with its slow rhythm, omnipresent piano, Hispanic atmosphere and emotional singing, is one of the most melodic passages with a light jazz rock background and a total absence of riffs. The counterpart is striking with ‘Told You’, a worrying mid tempo which after a dark riff takes off into dark developments on an ever so expressive song. The end of the album is more quiet and introspective with an atmospheric ‘Martian’, a ‘What If’ presents all the ingredients of a very creative prog rock but which sometimes seems to go a bit all over the place. The final solo, airy and touching in beauty, gives a solid foundation to the whole, and a very melodic finale with ‘Vexed Flower’ that ends the album smoothly.
The Argentinians didn’t completely erase the flaws already present in the past such as a too theatrical singing and a scattering of ideas due to the abundance of ideas per minute that Fughu sometimes has difficulty to focus. The result is an impression of a disordered patchwork and it becomes difficult to find one’s way around.
But the complex structure of the album is counter-balanced by an impeccable execution by accomplished musicians (special mention to Ariel Bellizio’s solos) and a writing rich of arrangements each more interesting than the other. It will take a lot of listening to appreciate all the workings of the album. But once assimilated, the exercise will seem magnificent as a whole. They only have to erase the few flaws to take a step forward, and they clearly have the means to do so.