Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IQ Puts Out A Classic, May 27, 2009
All of us prog lovers should be feeling pretty good about things right now. The United Kingdom has given us two superb releases this year. First, we get a the stellar release "Pure" from Pendragon and now we get "Frequency" from IQ.
If you thought IQ's prior release "Dark Matter" was good, wait until you give a listen to "Frequency". As happens to so many bands who have been in "the business" for as long as IQ has been, their releases begin to get weak. They seem to loose the creative spark. NOT SO with IQ. They actually seem to get better with each release! Keep in mind, IQ has been around for over 25 years! They may rotate musicians around just enough to keep fresh ideas in the mix, but yet always staying true to the IQ sound.
Frequency includes two new players. Mark Westworth replaces, founding member, Martin Orford on keyboards, and Andy Edwards replaces Paul Cook on drums. Although Paul Cook has already rejoined the band, it is Andy Edwards drumming you here on "Frequency". I have been a fan of Andy Edwards ever since I heard him play on the first Frost CD "Milliontown" (excellent CD by the way!) He seems to come from the "Keith Moon & Mike Portnoy school of drumming". He doesn't just keep the beat but also fills in every hole with some type of extra drum beat making the rhythm section really come alive. I had to do a double take to realize that I wasn't listening to Martin Orford on keyboards. Mark Wentworth is an excellent replacement with fantastic keyboard fills and a wonderful sense of melody. Peter Nichols voice has never sounded stronger.
Every song on "frequency is fantastic. Not a looser in the bunch. The entire work is laid out extremely well. The opening title track is immediately classic IQ. You then move into a slower number "Life Support" which eventually opens up into a wonderful soaring melodic piece. The center piece of the CD seems to be a trilogy of songs, all inter connected as one track, "Stronger Than Friction" (which is fantastic!), a slower piece "One Fatal Mistake" and wraps up with Ryker Skies, again a heavier song. (All together over 25 minutes of music) As soon as you think you can recover from this you get hit with the epic "The Province of the King" clocking in at 13:42. They finally release your gradually with the closing number "Closer", a slower more melodic number. As soon as it ends you want to start the entire thing all over again.
Quite often, when we want to introduce someone to a band's work we will recommend an earlier piece. If you want to introduce someone to IQ I would recommend their latest work "Frequency". Call it neo-prog? Call it symphonic prog? Call it fantastic! But, I've said enough. Just buy it already!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IQ's best album ever, June 3, 2009
In my opinion, 'Frequency' is the strongest of the latter-day IQ albums (which I count from 1993's 'Ever' onward.) There is not a weak song on it, and never a lull. The lyrics and vocal delivery are better than usual -- In past I've found Nicholls' vocals a bit forced and preachy. Here he is more relaxed and words more freely-flowing. I find that he is really 'selling' these songs a lot better than previously in his delivery. I also fault some of the recent IQ albums for sounding to edited, as if all the faults had been digitally cleaned out and unnaturally precise timings introduced. The recent songs sound like they were assembled from parts. 'Frequency' is a step away from that, though still could be better. The performances sound more human; which really suits IQ -- the lyrics are so personal and direct, they do not fit so well with a robotic super-precise performance. I say before you release a song from the studio make sure that a LIVE BAND OF HUMAN BEINGS can play it all the way through. We the listeners can tell, you know! I really like the new keyboard player, who is using a lot more vintage electric piano and organ sounds.
I criticize because I love! IQ is one of my faves. I think they could make a few changes and be truly one of the all time great prog acts.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IQ still flawless, May 28, 2009
The one thing "Frequency" is not is a surprise despite the integration of two new musicians. To the longtime fan, it will be familiar territory since IQ never strays far from a very rich core. For the newcomer, it can serve as an excellent entry point.
Even though this album is rather long, clocking at over an hour, it does not have one gigantic epic reminiscent of The Last Human Gateway, The Narrow Margin or 2004's Harvest of Souls. In this sense, Frequency is more paced like The Seventh House and its longest track, The Province, does not have the same epic feeling as the aforementioned songs. No matter: when a lot of modern prog bands sometimes seem to produce a marathon-track because they think they have to, IQ thrives for a coherent creation, usually with success.
All IQ fans are probably already familiar with the opening song, Frequency, which has been around for a while and is still remarkably catchy. As often with IQ albums, it takes a while to get into the different songs and it is easy to miss their beauty or their cleverness at first. In particular, Peter Nicholls' lyrics are often cryptic enough that you are not sure you understand what was meant...
Comparatively, the heavier songs are catchier at first, with Stronger than Friction and particularly Ryker Skies destined to be instant classics. The quieter songs (Life Support, One Fatal Mistake or the beautiful Closer) take more time but grow on you very fast and are rich enough that there is little risk of getting tired of them. I am still on the fence for The Province which for some reason makes me think of a subdued Dream Theater but it is also very enjoyable.
Since Subterranea (included) at least, I can find no wrong with IQ's output and this album is a wonderful addition to their work, even though it is now more variation on a theme than groundbreaking. The irony is that a generation of bands initially thought of as copycats of their 70's elders has now longer careers than their predecessors and just as rich. IQ still sits at the very top of the list
Added : For the CD+DVD version of Frequency:
The second disk is the DVD of a 2007 concert which should interest fans and newbies alike, the former because IQ Concert DVDs are not easy to find at the moment, the latter because it is a pretty good introduction to the band.
There are two songs from the new album, the title track and an early version of Stronger than Friction, good versions of songs from the most "recent" albums (You Never Will and Harvest of Souls from Dark Matter, The Seventh House and Guiding Light from The Seventh House, Sleepless Incidental and Subterranea from Subterranea)and a few oldies going all the way back to old favorite (a quarter of a century!) It All Stops Here from their very first album Seven Stories into Eight.
The concert is IQ in a nutshell. Musically impeccable, sounding very close to their recorded sound but with a different "live" vibe. The guys are gently self-deprecating and care very little about theatrics, the extent of which are seen in Peter Nicholls putting on a labcoat or a few visuals, including morphed photos of the band members. MTV Awards it ain't... But a great collection and trip down memory lane.
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