I love Hologram of Baal. It marks for me the band's journey into a mature and hopefully more confident era. The snippets from AENT confirm this to me. Yes, it does have weaker sections but overall it is mind blowing. I am seriously hoping to hear a lot of this stuff live. The opener is as Amanda suggests very intoxicating (even when intoxicated!). It swirls in an ever-decreasing vortex and is fabulous in every sense. "Ricochet" is disturbing and "lost" in a truly wonderful way. I think I know that part of town! "Louisiana" is gorgeous! "Tranquillity", as Florian Trout has already pointed out one of their career highs. ""Buffalo" I never bothered about until the SK A+I release. Suffice to say I am now in love with it. "Glow Worm" I love 'cause believe it or not I am an emotional sort of creature.

To balance all this gushing I will say that the talking part of "The Great Machine", as I said before, reminds me of Rick from "the Young Ones" ode to Neil and hence leaves me in stitches,

"Oh Neil!
Neil!
Orange peel!"

"What are you doing, Neil?
To make a meal, Neil? (it's surreal)
From totalitarian vegetables.
How much does it cost, Neil...?"

or how about,

"Pollution
All around
Sometimes up
And sometimes down
But always around.
Pollution, are you coming to my town?
Or am I coming to yours?
We're on different buses, pollution
But we're both using petrol."

for more of Rick's poems visit:

www.ironworks.com/comedy/.../poems.htm

On the guitar front this is also one of the few albums where we get to hear Marty's (or Peter's) Steve Howe homage's. Briefly at the start of "This is it" with the harmonics (identical to a track on Yes's poor "Open Your Eye's" album from '97) and more specifically during "Another Earth", where whole passages are lifted directly from his style. I still like both tracks though.

Brian

PS. Did I mention "No Certainty Attached"? Love that too.

PPS. Am I the only person who uses "Bastard Universe" to jam along with the Church. It's great, just stick it on, pick up any instrument and join in. Sheer bloody genius to release this as a bonus disk. Occassionally I have used synths but mostly a guitar and echo unit.

PPPS. FM, I also miss my childhood and catchy chorus' and stuff but sometimes the mood does take me for something more mature although, as you will know if you read my posts, I am a massive fan of the early (Pre Starfish) stuff. I used to only like my puddings but these days I also enjoy the main meal.