Collage - Moonshine (1994/2023)

With good repercussion (?) from the release Nine Songs of John Lennon, which was also released in Korea and Japan, Collage started to work on new material. The Dutch label SI, impressed with the CD and the demo tape sent with the track "Wings in the Night," signed the band, who entered Markant Studio in Heeze (Holland) and recorded eight tracks. All tracks were sung in English but the booklet also contains the Polish version of the lyrics and credits. With Moonshine, Collage shows listeners one of the best examples of how the combination of striving musicians and melodic sense can still produce a must-have progressive rock album. All tracks are well structured, full of introspective, melodic, and symphonic textures. The rhythm section sets the orientation of the compositions and the guitar solos are quite emotive. The result is what most listeners search for in a progressive rock album: good playing and emotion at the same time. Musically talking, there was nothing really new in Moonshine, but nevertheless it remains one of the most remarkable albums in progressive rock. If you don't like neo-prog that much, this CD still offers a lot of enjoyable music.~Review by Cesar Lanzarini