Area 39 ~ Stand Alone Together

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The first few minutes listening to Stand Alone Together really reminded me of some of the spacey stuff by Allan Parsons, this even though Paula Cunningham's soft voice does not remind me of any of the singers I have heard on a Parsons' record. This, and some hints of Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd, remains apparent for the first two tracks, not that the music is derivative in any way.

The mid section of the album (tracks 3 to 5) gets to be heavier, perhaps closer to OSI or some Porcupine Tree and is instrumental. In the end, the album returns, with it's longest track, to the spacey keyboard mood of it's beginning. This shift from spacey to heavy and back is done while keeping a common thread between the songs. In fact Stand Alone Together sounds to me like a unique piece that should be listened in continuity.

I have really enjoyed listening to Stand Alone Together . It does offer music that is somewhat familiar to my ears, but no perticular band or song clearly comes to mind. The music on Stand Alone Together is very well written and performed and fans of the afore mentioned bands should check it out. Area 39 is a band well worth keeping an eye on.

Tracks

  1. The Dreamer Dreams
  2. Beyond The Clouds
  3. Through The Eye Of A Telescope
  4. Universal Dot To Dot
  5. Changing Horizon
  6. The Dreamer's Dreamed Part a
  7. The Dreamer's Dreamed Part b

Credits

Ray Turrell
Bass guitar, six string guitar, lead guitar (section 1), fx guitar, strings arrangments, lyrics

John Grosberg
Keyboards, strings arrangments, editing (section 5), mixing (section 5)

Wayne Sowden
Drums

Paula Cunningham
Vocals (sections 1 & 2)

David Roy
Vocals, co-writing lyrics (section 2)

Gavin Fletcher
Lead guitar (section 2 & 3)

Nicky Allan
Choir, plus lead vocal (section 6)

Reviewed by Marc Roy - You can read this review and thousands of additional reviews on http://www.proggnosis.com - the web's largest database of progressive rock and fusion.