| The
Review |
The dynamic duo of Chris Squire and Billy Sherwood return
with their second album, which features a completely upbeat
and technical overload of melodic and progressive structure,
giving new light to the term "Conspiracy." ***
"The Unknown," is in direct relation, at least sound
wise, to both World Trade albums as well as 90125/Big Generator-era
Yes production styling, keeping pop elements present among
the complex backdrop of various musical intervals. ***
Balancing out the influence of the two's musicianship,
songwriting, and production values, both Squire and Sherwood
have outdone themselves on this album, going beyond just the
simple "project" connotations that seemed to be the case with
their first album together. Looking at the production, very
discrete engineering and mixing procedures were used placing
effect upon effect enhancing the layers upon layers of instrumentation
(lots of panning and delay effects were used). Both share
equal amounts of the lead vocal duties, while performing perfect
harmonies among Sherwood's high tenor (or maybe it's low alto)
and Squire's baritone. ***
"Conspiracy" opens up with the song of the same name,
which is an extremely upbeat cut which sounds just like it
could have been a lost track from Big Generator, and just
goes to show that these two art getting down to business immediately,
instead of trying to open the record up with a two minute
noisy Goth blunder "intro." Following up is "Confess," which
a few parts of this cut reminds me of Led Zeppelin's "Friends"
due to its dark harmonies and dark backdrop, however the chorus
adds counterpoint to the song's structure, adding the brighter
feel to it. "New World" sounds so much like a 90125 it almost
sounds as if this cut was written for that record. The record
takes a more eased back pace midway through the record, with
"½ a World Away" and "Premonition" adding more laid back structure
to a rather energetic album. The title cut offers the full-blown
progressions with the occasional soloing and jamming, creating
an extended conceptual opus. The record closes with "I Could,"
which is literally a retro World Trade cut (along the lines
of their self titled debut album from 1989).***
With the mix of Keyboard ambience providing the rhythmic
structure along Sherwood's guitar work and Squire's signature
lead bass lines, the two have created an album beyond all
of our expectations. In a last word, the title is sort of
an oxymoron here, I mean "The Unknown," hell it is already
"known" that this record is going to kick ass, I mean any
Yes or World Trade fan will immediately be hooked on this
record.***
Tommy Hash
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