Magenta – Tarot

If you would ask me what the ideal format for an album would be, I would more or less end up with the choice that mastermind Rob Reed of Magenta made for their latest album Tarot. The album contains five long tracks that all last around ten minutes, in between there are four very short intermezzos with mainly acoustic guitar titled Etude 1 to 4 and ends with the title track that has a more average length. The beautiful cover shows us an old fortune teller/magician who has the tarot cards in front of him. Most will know the principle of the tarot cards, but for those who don't, these are a kind of future-predicting cards that are laid by an often mystical figure. Personally, I don't believe any of it, but the idea is of course very attractive for a thematic album.

The hard core of Magenta still consists of Rob Reed, who mainly plays keyboards, but is also responsible for compositions and orchestrations and of course the mix. He also plays some pieces on guitar but the solos and many acoustic passages are played by Chris Fry and this guy plays very well and with a lot of feeling. Last but not least, Christina Booth sings great and that has partly to do with the fact that all music was written by Reed with her voice in mind. Since Reed himself takes up the prominent bass guitar, only the drumming remains and that is done by none other than Nick D'Vergilio, known from Spocks Beard and Big Big Train, among others. A great drummer who also shows here that he belongs to the very best. And now that I’ve mentioned them, Big Big Train is also a reference that is certainly worth mentioning, pastoral and very British indeed.

It's clear, all the conditions have been met to make a great album and for me Tarot is the best album Magenta has ever made, full stop. Reed himself indicates that he is mainly inspired by bands like Renaissance and Yes but is indebted to all the greats of progressive Rock. These influences are very apparent and there lies a small problem for me, those are just not really my favourite bands. Despite this, I can only say that the craftsmanship of Reed is more than clear, the music is very good, so are all the vocals (Peter Jones can be heard on backing vocals too) and the compositions are well thought out. The individual songs all have a character/object of a tarot card as a subject and starting point, so we have The Lovers first and that is immediately a sample of what we can expect, broad orchestrations, a present bass, good vocals and beautiful guitar solos. Magenta at its best and it stays that way throughout the album, very consistent and no fillers. The variation is found within the songs themselves, there is a lot of dynamics so the very quiet passages are interspersed with exuberant pieces. Don't expect heavy rock because Magenta is not one of those. I like the second long track, The Magician even a bit better and that is mainly due to the melody and the sometimes quite bluesy guitar playing of Fry who solos beautifully.

I can go through all the tracks one by one, but the story would generally be the same and that is not a criticism but an underlining of the consistency in quality of the music.

Don't I have any criticism? Well, that may seem a bit strange because I don't really have that and yet something pinches. That's in my personal taste, I'm not a big fan of Yes and certainly not of Howe's guitar playing or Anderson's vocals. Yes, I know that not many do share this opinion with me. Booth's vocals suit me much better and Fry is certainly not just a copycat of Howe, but the overall sound definitely points in the direction of Yes and the already mentioned Renaissance. The orchestrations are overwhelming and are sometimes supplemented by some wind instruments such as oboe and flute. In the end Magenta works much better for me than both named references and I will certainly listen to the album Tarot regularly, just like my previous favourite Magenta album, The Twenty Seven Club, by the way.

Since I always give a rating to my reviews, I have some trouble with that in this case. Given the undisputed quality of the album, a higher rating than the one I would give based on my personal taste would be justified. Moreover, I am convinced that many visitors, and therefore readers, of this site will appreciate this album very much. In our small country, we often opt for the so-called middle ground so that’s what I will do.

Music 79

Cover 86