Reviewed by Keith Singleton

Reformation are a duo consisting of Neil Watkinson and Gary Mawdsley and they describe this collection of 10 of their songs as "very much in your face type of rock, pop and ballads." I can agree with the pop and ballad descriptions, but I'm not sure about the rock part. For an independent, the recording quality is excellent, which just goes to show the advances in digital recording available now. Musically the songs are all superb. The programmed drums ensure a number of the songs have a dance feel while there is a prominent acoustic guitar which gives it a distinctive edge. Lyrically, the songs talk about life issues such as "Black Shoes" which talks about Christian stereotypes. However, we don't escape without the odd corny line such as "Be humble and contrite/At least for a fortnight." The sleeve doesn't state which of the duo is the vocalist but he hasn't got the strongest of voices, although he does remind me of Greg Lake (of Emerson Lake And Palmer for those too young to remember) and I think the addition of some backing vocals might help. Overall though, not a bad album at all.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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