j o n b

This is supposed to be IQ's masterwork. An hour and a half plus concept album that embodies all that is good about IQ. It was touted as one of the great albums of the year, if not the great album of the year. I wish I could agree with all the gushing sentiment, but there are holes that prevent me from doing that. Still, it is a very good album. As I said, this is a concept album. Aside from the lyrics, there is absolutely no guidance in the liner notes to guide the listener as to what the concept actually is. From some information on the Dutch IQ Page, here's what I figured out: Our hero is being kept in bondage by a person known only as Provider. He has no name, has never been in the real world, and is dependent on Provider for all his needs. Provider kicks him out into the cruel world, where our hero mingles with the street folk and a religious cult, falls in love (with a woman who gives him a name) but then loses her. Our hero notices a person following him, a person reporting to Provider on his progress. Our hero turns the table on this gentlemen, extracts the name and location of Provider, and kills him. Our hero pledges to seek his revenge on Provider and sets out to find him. In the process, he finds out that he is not alone. In the end, his attempt to burn Provider and his operation to the ground is unsuccessful, and our hero voluntarily returns to captivity, because he is more dangerous on the outside. I have no earthly idea if that is really what happens, or what it means. Which is one of my two problems with the album. Peter Nicholls' lyrics are traditionally obtuse, which is great when they stand on their own and don't have to mean anything. But here, any sense of a story gets lost all to often. For example, the song "Speak My Name" concerns our hero's all-too-brief love affair, but we hear no lead in and no mention of her leaving. I can see it in the lyrics once I know the story, but can't get the story out of the lyrics themselves. In a normal album, I don't much care if a song doesn't make sense to me. Hell, after all these years I have no idea what all of "Close to the Edge" is about! But, if you're going to put across a concept, it's got to come across on its own. The other problem with the album is that I think it is overlong. It almost seems to me that they came up with about 80-85 minutes worth of material and were faced with a dilemma. Trim it to fit on one CD, or flesh it out a bit to stretch across two discs. Musically, there are too many places that are straight forward for too long. While there are parts which soar on typical IQ walls of sound, and the album is peppered with interesting and effective keyboard and guitar solos and such, they do not make their presence enough on the album. That mix, that balance, is what I thought made IQ the band it was, what set them apart from other neo-prog bands. Here, that balance is tipped too much towards more direct songs that support the lyrics, which would be OK if the lyrics were more effective, as I discussed above. After all that, you're probably wondering how on Earth I can rate this album highly. Fact is, I tend to focus on the negative because so many people are so positive about the album. There is a lot to like here, and I've listened to this several times in its entirety, all 102 minutes of it. Maybe the worst thing is that it leaves me wanting more. review by Jon Byrne — undated —

j a c k

Veteran neo-proggers IQ's first (and hopefully last) attempt at a double concept album. I've tried to get into this album. Honestly... I really tried. Though I've grown to like some parts of it a little more than when I first heard it, I just can't get into most of it. It seems to me that IQ's strength lies in the instrumentals, the melodic guitar and synth leads, the lush and dramatic arrangements, and the catchy/melodic basslines. You know, kinda like Genesis. :-) Unfortunately, I don't hear a lot of that on here. Instead, there's a lot of whining from Peter Nicholls, and a lot of extended digital synthesizer washes. There are several themes that keep coming back, but these themes just don't do anything for me, and they don't seem to be developed a whole lot beyond what flies by in "Overture." Okay, so now the concept. Some guy is keeping another guy prisoner in some kind of underground jail. The prisoner guy gets out (how? - no idea) and experiences "the real world" for the first time. It sounds like a pretty interesting idea, but it doesn't seem to translate into music very well. Lyrically, it's not bad, but kind of obscure, kind of cheesy. It's just.... I don't know. Not very special. Big old concepts and big old long songs don't necessarily make good prog. That said, I can't find myself to hate this album enough not to want to own it. Whenever I listen to it, I find a few passages to enjoy, mostly in the instrumentals. Highlights for me are parts of "Failsafe," "Tunnel Vision," and most of disc two up to "Narrow Margin." But I just can't agree with all of the hype that surrounds it. It's a good effort, but I wouldn't consider it a classic, even by neo-prog standards. Maybe if they had condensed it down to a single disc, and spiced things up a bit? I dunno. Maybe it was better they did it live. This was my first IQ album, but it's not one I'd recommend an IQ newcomer to start with (instead, I'd recommend Ever or The Wake). review by Jack Hesse — undated —

s e a n

This was voted the best album of the year 1997 on rec.music.progressive, although this might be more due to its accessibility than anything else. Subterranea is a double-CD concept album spanning about 100 minutes with the requisite fantasy storyline. The band does a good job of establishing themes which are restated and re-explored later in the album. Nicholls' lyrics are sufficiently abstract to stay interesting and elusive. The album tells a story, even if one is not ever really sure what story that is. Where the album could have been better is in the actual compositions. While they tie into each other well enough, there aren't really any standout tracks throughout the first 80 minutes such as "Widow's Peak" or "Leap of Faith". In fact, the band tends to stay in pretty safe territory over most of the album, and relegates compositional complexity to the back burner. The result is an album with fewer emotional peaks than the half-length Ever of four years earlier. The 20-minute epic at the end, "The Narrow Margin" picks up much of the slack, featuring a suitably grandiose buildup to the climax and then a quiet denouement. In the end, Subterranea strikes me as an album that neo-prog fans who case concept albums and epics must have loved, but which to me seems like a band mostly standing still. It's like releasing two extra discs of Ever but watering each one down a little bit. IQ deserves credit as one of the best neo-progressive bands out there, and I do want to emphasize that despite my hesitations to endorse it as a classic I still enjoy listening to this. Just don't become a victim to all the hype; you can do just as well, if not better, with their earlier material. review by Sean McFee — undated —