Saga
Marathon

On their fifteenth studio album and twenty-five years after their recording debut, Saga concludes with this work dated 2003 an impromptu kind of... transversal saga, named "The Chapters" and spread over sixteen songs located in seven different works, according to the following tortuous scheme:

Chapter 1         "Images"                     from the 2nd album "Images at Twilight" of 1979

Chapter 2         "Don't Be Late"          from the 3rd album "Silent Knight" of 1980

Chapter 3         "It's Time"                   from the 2nd album "Images at Twilight"

Chapter 4         "Will It Be You?"         from the 1st album "Saga" of 1978

Chapter 5         "No Regrets"               from the 4th album "Worlds Apart" of 1981

Chapter 6         "Tired World"             from the 1st album "Saga"

Chapter 7         "Too Much to Loose" from the 3rd album "Silent Knight"

Chapter 8         "No Strangers"           from the 4th album "Worlds Apart"

Chapter 9         "Remember When?"    from the 13th album "Full Circle" of 1999

Chapter 10       "Not This Way"           from the 13th album "Full Circle"

Chapter 11       "Ashes to Ashes"         from the 14th album "House of Cards" of 2001

Chapter 12       "You Know I Know"    from the 15th album "Marathon" of 2003

Chapter 13       "Uncle Albert's Eyes" from the 13th album "Full Circle"

Chapter 14       "Streets of Gold"        from the 15th album "Marathon"

Chapter 15       "We'll Meet Again"    from the 14th album "House of Cards"

Chapter 16       "Worlds Apart"           from the 15th album "Marathon"

They will then, a few years later and precisely in 2006, release a live CD featuring the performance of the aforementioned sixteen tracks in strict chapter order, enough to weave an actual and complete story, undoubtedly sequential albeit notably hermetic and metaphysical, in its own way evocative in imagining other worlds and existential dimensions.

As for the rest, "Marathon" is yet another successful Saga album, excellent but not exceptional, slightly inferior to the previous "House of Cards" but far superior to the even earlier "Full Circle": having completely abandoned the forcibly commercial aspirations and questionable extremisms towards a single rotational style, the band is well-centered on their unique way of balancing progressive with pop, hard rock with certain aromas of British folk, the verbose instrumental indulgence with concise linearity and melodic lightness.

The quintet is still and always the classic one, on their eleventh (and penultimate...) work with the same faces: the brilliant rhythm section still features the left-handed, now chubby but more imaginative than ever drummer Steve Negus, alongside the pointed, bleached bassist Jim Chricton (also a keyboardist, and especially a producer); the three soloists are the chubby (over the years... he was a wisp as a boy) yet very agile keyboardist Jim Gilmour, the short and chubby (always) magically frenzied guitarist Ian Chricton, endowed with superior technique and utmost creativity, and finally the increasingly balding frontman Michael Sadler, also a keyboardist.

The most progressive and complex tracks are, not surprisingly, the very three set to... tender; on the front of beautiful linear melodies, "Breathing Lessons" and "Too Deep" stand out. Finally, "How Are You" is classic hard rock streaked with powerful riffs by Ian Chricton, who in his style works in staccato on the main riff and then carves out one of his devilish solos, genuinely playful, in pure and uncatchable legato. What a musician!