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Pendragon - Not Of This World

Artist:	Pendragon
Title:	Not Of This World
Label:	Toff Records PEND10CD
Length(s):	76 minutes
Year(s) of release:	20001
Month of review:	[07/2001]

Line up

Nick Barrett - guitars, vocals
Clive Nolan - keyboards
Fudge Smith - drums
Peter Gee - bass guitar
Tina Riley - additional backing vocals

Tracks

1)	If I Were The Wind (and You Were The Rain)	9.23
2)	Dance Of The Seven Veils (part 1): Faithless	4.09
3)	Dance Of The Seven Veils (part 2): All Over Now	7.30
4)	Not Of This World (part 1): Not Of This World	7.20
5)	Not Of This World (part 2): Give It To Me	2.23
6)	Not Of This World (part 3): Green Eyed Angel	6.40
7)	A Man Of Nomadic Traits	11.43
8)	World's End (part 1): The Lost Children	10.46
9)	World's End (part 2): And Finally...	7.13
10)	Paintbox Acoustic Version (bonus)	4.25
11)	King Of The Castle Acoustic Version (bonus)	4.44

Summary

It took the band five years, but finally they are back with a new album. The bonus tracks are also available on the compilation Pendragon, The History 1984-2000. From an interview with Nick Barrett in iO Pages I found out that this album has much to do with Nick's divorce that occurred after The Masquerade Overture. Certainly puts some of the tracks in a different light.

The music

If I Were The Wind (And You Were The Rain) opens this long album in rather typical Pendragon style. Emotional waves of guitar, strumming acoustic guitar and keyboards in the back, and rather laid back drumming make for a grand bombastic intro. Afterwards the piano takes over for a while until we come to the vocal part. The vocal part is rather loud and he sings it as if singing it against the blow of the wind. The chorus is less likable, but the bridge is nice again. The style is typical for Pendragon as it has been these last years. Maybe a bit more in the style of The World, and less Masquarade Overture, but the differences are small. The female vocals that arise in the back of the chorus have a strong Floyd feel, but that should not surprise anyone. A piano interlude in the middle gives us a bit of breathin space in this rather orchestral track. The piano gets company from balladic vocals and a string orchestra of sorts. The song seems to be about the father-son relationship.

Dance Of The Seven Veils is two parted. The first part has a warped guitar sound and a low zooming bass. The opening vocal part is not that distinctive, but the choral chorus is much so. It also reminds me of the chorus of the previous track. Then we get some pace in the track, as we move into the second part. This is a rather catchy passage really, but the song soon takes a step back with moody and melodic acoustic guitar. Late in the track we step back to The World with some variations on the melodies from that album. A very full sound at the end here.

The first part of Not OF This World really breaks out loud with strong keyboards and pacey guitars all with strong melodic content. The guitar playing gets particularly fast along the way, I think no track of Pendragon has been that fired up. Very orchestral and effective. In comparison with the previous tracks, this song sounds less like similar to previous albums of Pendragon, although part of it (the mortal coil verse) comes right out of the Seven Veils song. After all this loud bombasm, we the part ends with acoustic lamenting. The second part then comes right up with somewhat Arena like buildup in the keyboards. This is a rather plodding part with nylon guitar in the back and vocal melody that I am not particularly fond of. The final part, the Green Eyed Angel (who looks remarkably like Madonna, as was noticed by Chris Bekhuis some time ago), is an easy going part.

A Man Of A Nomadic Traits continues the by now obvious line of this recording: strumming nylon string guitar, lots of keyboards filling up the sound spectrum, wailing electric guitar and an impression of Barrett singing as if it is "me against the rest of the world" similar to the impression I got on the first track. Halfway, the music has some meandering solo's on the keyboards, but the continuation is again very melodic guitar dominated.

Having the largest total of minutes, World's End is also the last regular track. The first part is rather relaxed and moody. Not so strange in view of the title, I guess. The ending of the first part is rather up-beat, but the second part harkens back to the strong part from Not Of This World part 1 including the Floydian female backing vocals and this time military drums. A strong finale.

The album concludes with two bonus tracks, acoustic versions of songs from the previous record, that were available on Metal Mind's Pendragon The History 1994-2000, so no need to buy that one if you are only after being complete music wise. Of course, Paintbox is one of the most succesful tracks of the Masquerade Overture album. A compact track, and rather introverted.

Conclusion

In case you wondered: the vocals of Nick Barrett are as accented as ever, but do not let that deter you. Pendragon is not known for renewing themselves much, but they managed to carve their own niche, now releasing records as they see fit and having plenty of success, without compromising their integrity. The music has to have something to say it seems, and although Pendragon's music is among the most easily accessible within prog this does not mean the ideas are shallow or simple, they simply have a large appeal. And if the band can continue to release album in their typical accessible style I for one will not complain. I did notice that there is a lot of acoustic guitar on this one usually accompanying, instead of "instead of", electric guitar and more powerful bombast than on the bestselling predecessor. But it might be that my memory is failing.