| Artist: | IQ |
| Title: | Subterranea |
| Label: | Giant Electric Pea GEPCD 1021 |
| Length(s): | 102 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1997 |
| Month of review: | 09/1997 |
| 1) | Overture | 4.38 |
| 2) | Provider | 1.36 |
| 3) | Subterranea | 5.53 |
| 4) | Sleepless Incidental | 6.23 |
| 5) | Failsafe | 8.57 |
| 6) | Speak My Name | 3.34 |
| 7) | Tunnel Vision | 7.24 |
| 8) | Infernal Chorus | 5.09 |
| 9) | King Of Fools | 2.02 |
| 10) | The Sense In Sanity | 4.47 |
| 11) | State Of Mine | 1.59 |
Disc 2:
| 1) | Laid Low | 1.29 |
| 2) | Breathtaker | 6.04 |
| 3) | Capricorn | 5.16 |
| 4) | The Other Side | 2.22 |
| 5) | Unsolid Ground | 5.04 |
| 6) | Sometimes In Time | 7.11 |
| 7) | High Waters | 2.43 |
| 8) | The Narrow Margin | 20.00 |
A hard point is always what to talk about when you review an album like this. Like I said, the Overture starts with some neo-classical stuff and continues into a melting pot of melodies and themes that will recur in the following. In fact lots of times during the album I get deja-ecoute's from earlier IQ album, but don't worry they're not plagiarising. Every single instrument is allowed it's place and in some cases like Subterranea, a saxophone has been added for good measure. The vocals of Nicholls are still plaintive and maybe not to everyone's liking, but in my case it is a sound that I have grown up with. A good example of the music on this album is Sleepless Incidental: soft acoustic parts, aggressive rhythm guitars, layers of keyboards, great up-tempo and slow solo's on the keyboard, varied drumming, and melodic guitar solo's to round it all off.
Speak My Name is entirely different and is in fact a very soft ballad with only keyboard accompaniment and an acoustic guitar middle part. This is in fact one of the songs that the band played on their last tour in Holland. Still after the relative hectic first tracks it is good to have a breather.
Well the album continues like this and not surprisingly themes recur along the way, which of course is what a concept album musically is about. Some of the songs like Tunnel Vision are slow in developing, developing a thread that goes over a number of tracks and as such some of the songs will not lend themselves easily to being played out of context. Other tracks such as the instrumental State of Mine shine, in their one short, bombastic and energetic outburst.
Continuing now with the second disc we get Laid Low, a repetition of State of Mine, but now quieter and plaintive (a la Camel) on piano. A beautiful melody. The contrast with the pouncing Breathtaker is very noticable. In my opinion this is the weakest song on the album, with a rather weak vocal melody. The next one Capricorn is the first climax with humming basswork, a great melody, some great emotional saxophone work and a long closing guitar solo. The Other Side is more like a tribute to Geoff Mann with a wobbly guitar.
I must be listening too much music, because although the guitar in Unsolid Ground sounds so familiar I can't for the life of me remember wherefrom. Unsolid Ground by the way is rather a standard rock song. Somewhere In Time is better with a soft beginning and a strong continuation with the guitar on the fore. after the also great High Waters, the album closes with the twenty minute epic The Narrow Margin. Opening softly with slow percussion, vocals, piano and wailing guitar we get into a poppier part with good melodies. It will not surprise you if I say that this song is the climax of the album with great melodies, intricate playing, raging guitars, loose drumming and diverse themes fighting for dominance. BTW there are a few hints to Camel's Nude in the guitar parts. The song ends on a low key like Provider and the sound of a drain cover being put back into place.
A little talk on the concept itself then: it isn't easy to get at the particulars, because the lyrics of Nicholls are quite vague. It is about modern day life with all its possibilities and contradictions. I have a distinct feeling there's something religious going on in there and even have the impression that the main person might be some sort of messiah. I hope to be able to give a less abstract appraisal of the story after seeing the concert.
The artwork is professional which is no wonder for a release like this. I would like to not that one symbol can be found throughout the booklet, a combination of the Japanese flag and a domino stone.
I do ask myself whether an album can have too many emotional climaxes. If so we might have an overdose here.