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IQ - Ever

Artist:	IQ
Title:	Ever
Label:	Giant Electric Pea GEPCD
Length(s):	50 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1993
Month of review:	06/1994

Line up

Peter Nicholls - lead and backing vocals
Martin Orford - keyboards, flute, backing vocals
Mike Holmes - guitars
John Jowitt - bass, backing vocals
Paul Cook - drums

Tracks

1)	The Darkest Hour	10.52
2)	Fading Senses	6.36
	i. After All
	ii. Fading Senses
3)	Out Of Nowhere	5.10
4)	Further Away	14.30
5)	Leap Of Faith	7.22
6)	Came Down	5.57

Summary

I know you will be saying: "Reviewing Ever? That album has been out for almost a year?". Still I have reviewed it and if you don't want to read what's coming, then don't. If however you have the album and you think: "Hmm, this might be a good time to check whether this guy knows anything at all about the music" than this is the time I guess.

Some preliminary remarks: 1) IQ will release a live album somewhere in around September (I'm not even entirely sure about that). 2) I would have done an interview with IQ if I hadn't just missed out on them in Uden (better luck next time, which would be around November). 3) They played very well at Uden, a lot better than the last time when I saw them in Tivoli. 4) I have a hope for the future: release a live-video and try to include the Drive On video (which is rumoured to be very good, but the single was never released). Who knows what MIGHT have happened if it had been released. 5) Jowitt has grown a beard and is now referred to as Atilla the Hun (I admit that this is not generally accepted). 6) The albums was chosen by SI magazine readers to become album of the year in 1993. The albums had 1495 while runner-up Pendragon's Window of Life had only 1008. Additionally they were chosen as the best performing band of that year leaving the entire Uden festival, Dream Theater and more behind them. Lastly Ever was also chosen as being the best album by the SI cooperators. 7) The GEP label has been taken over by Rough Trade. It was already rumoured for a long time that GEP wasn't doing very well.

The music

As always I will go by the songs one by one starting with the first and moving to the last. After that I will give my final appraisal on the entire album (it is possible, however hard, to

The Darkest Hour starts out very much like IQ (though it sounds more like an intermezzo than an intro to me). The vocal parts of this song are its weakness and this song certainly doesn't stand out in the oeuvre of IQ. Only when the first musical intermezzo starts does the song become interesting. At the end of the intermezzo tension is building as it moves into that so typical slow drumming, like someone walking slowly with heavy footsteps. Then Nicholls starts again singing in a more sinister way, in pace with the drumming. After another two stanzas the guitar takes over and the song moves to a tragic end (like the end of It All Stops Here). Could have been a very good song if it weren't for the first half.

Fading Senses is a good song all the way though it reminds me a lot of Still Life (Nomzamo). The intro is very much a variation on the intro of the latter. It's typical of Nicholls though that this has abstract, depressed lyrics instead of the lovesong Menel would have made of it. It makes you wonder: does he write these lyrics because he has such a rotten life or does he just feel that these lyrics should accompany this music. The second part has the atmosphere of Nostalgia (Are You Sitting...) and I must say that I enjoy it a lot.

The song moves right into Out Of Nowhere. This song is quite up-tempo and a bit heavy, a good contrast with Fading Senses. The weak parts of this song are again the voice parts, especially in the first part of the song.

Further Away is the longest song on the album and so holds a promise. (Is this the next Last Human Gateway? Just kidding) The song starts out very well, very balladlike with good a vocal melody. After three or four minutes the song takes a turn to a more heavy approach. The song contains a very good, full keyboardsolo somewhere halfway the song. After that hectic, a bit Bankslike solo, we get into an atmospheric part so everyone can regain his breath. The guitarsolo has some of the quality of the one in Common Ground (Nomzamo). Around 11 minutes we return to a previous melody but now played quite cheer- fully on the flute, after which the guitar continues and Nicholls ends quite dramatically with the last three couplets and the song gets to an end with a guitarsolo.

Leap Of Faith is the best song on this album. It's at times very reminiscent of very old IQ in the It All Stops Here and Fascination era. The song combines both keyboard freakiness and melodic guitar into a very tasty whole, though it starts out very moody. The song moves on right into Came Down. This is definitely a ballad with prominent guitar by Mike Holmes. It is especially in these songs that remind me of Nomzamo and Are You Sitting as these albums contained some beautiful ballads and those songs were usually the highlights of the said albums. I think this song is a good closer after the rather hectic Leap Of Faith, because it gives the listener his time to relax as the album get to its end. It's like with classic symphonies: after the climax there's usually a soft part to let the energy fade away.

Conclusion

IQ is as much as anything a band to be admired, because the return of Nicholls hasn't induced a simple return to old values (if Gabriel would return to Genesis, would you think the Lamb would be walking on Broadway yet again?). They had much to live up to this time, because with the disappointing career- moves by Marillion (they have come back, I agree, but that's only AFTER Ever) all eyes were on IQ as the flagship of Progressive Rock. Have they come through one might ask? I guess so, but not because Ever is the classic people might have expected. They have retained very much the style of Nomzamo and Are You Sitting mostly melodically, but rhythmically they remind me a lot of old IQ. Fortunately they have left the commercial songs out and as such the album is more an album you listen to all the way instead of skipping a song once in a while. Another very noticeable difference is of course the voice of Nicholls compared with Menel and the lyrics have that vagueness again, we all know from Tales and the Wake. As always Nicholls has also taken care of the artwork and has done that well. Some ideas on these albums have been heard before on the albums just mentioned but it's not disturbing and they only emphasize the fact that Ever is not the Wake, but has to be judged upon its own merits. As such my conclusion is that this album is good, very good at times, but not the classic everyone might have hoped for and as such might be a disappointment to some. I personally have overcome this disappointment by listening to the a few times and it certainly grows on you.

I do wonder: they have found their style, but whereto next? Consolidate?