Saga
Images at Twilight

THE REVIEW

Canadian quintet with hard rock, progressive, funky, AOR, and occasionally even alternative components, in a mix whose proportions have changed multiple times over their very long, more than three-decade-long and still ongoing career. The Saga began with their early albums, primarily promoting a distinctive version of progressive music, contaminated and simplified by disco/rock rhythms.

We are, after all, in 1979. The Bee Gees, Barry White, Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer, and company have been dominating and enormously influencing everyone and everything for a couple of years (forget punk!) in the musical field, with a primarily rhythmic revolution that now sounds obsolete but was epochal at the time. Hence, half of the songs on this second album travel roughly with the kick drum on four and the hi-hat fluttering sixteenths, occasionally even with a synthesizer reinforcing, if not completely replacing, the bass lines.

Besides the sound, Saga also seeks distinctive signs in terms of graphics, so the captivating dragonfly/man that was already present on the debut album's cover the previous year returns. In addition, there's the same producer, Paul Gross, with his taste for warm and mid-range sounds; only the solo keyboardist changes, from Peter Rochon to one Gregg Chadd, also a fleeting figure in the group's history, appearing only in this work.

It's always the keyboards that lead the dance (Chadd is often accompanied by singer Michael Sadler and occasionally by bassist Jim Chricton), with agile arpeggios and warm pads, while the guitar interjections ensure dynamics and surprise, even more so in the instrumental breaks arranged with call and response, unisons, and harmonizations between strings and ivory keys, with classy and never excessive virtuosity.

As I already mentioned when discussing the first album, I proceed to highlight three of the eight tracks on the list: the most successful and beloved of the bunch is the fourth track "You're Not Alone", an absolute, mandatory must in live concerts where, after the instrumental central break, Sadler always lets the audience sing the title phrase at the top of their lungs: a true anthem for Saga fans, this episode.

The opening track "It's Time", my favorite, rolls gloriously and emphatically in its semi-disco rhythm contrasted with the lush brass sounds of the synthesizers and the wagging of electric pianos, until Ian Chricton invents his first major career solo: an affair that begins with a murderous glissando, a guitar note played at an insane volume and conducted in a portamento many tones higher, only to explode into an effective and increasingly pressing phrasing until the final catharsis, in a sea of keyboards.

"Images" is the longest episode, consisting of three parts: it begins with a 100% progressive intro, a soft and evocative synth lament surrounded by an incredibly romantic piano arpeggio, then evolves into the sung part, in which Sadler tries to soften his tone as much as possible by singing "head voice", almost in falsetto. A drum break and the final instrumental coda starts, resolved with an epic synthesizer fanfare, at full volume on maximally nostalgic chords and the clashing brilliance of the excellent Steve Negus. It's the most "English" track in the collection, reminiscent of Renaissance or Camel.