Since this has turned into a CAS thread I went and listened to it. (Warning: Negative viewpoint to follow.) I had heard parts of it before and wasn't impressed enough to explore it more, but I thought I should give it a chance. Sorry to say that I think it's easily their worst album. Most of the songs just plod along without anything particularly interesting happening. The famous fade-outs are, in fact, horrible. Although the album would be somewhat improved without them, the fact that so many of the songs were faded out while vocals were happening is just indicative of how directionless the songs are anyway. They don't really progress anywhere, so what does it matter if they fade out at just about any time?
Some here have made a connection between CAS and Genesis' earlier work, but other than a "dark moodiness", I don't really see any, and even then the similarity really isn't there. That's okay, I'm fine with something different. I can handle a different lead singer, but there was very little that stood out in CAS. I realize that albums can grow with repeated listens, but having already noticed how dull the rhythm section usually seemed or how uninteresting the vocal lines were, I don't see the need to keep trying. That said, I did thing "Dividing Line" was pretty good and "Alien Afternoon" had some good spots.
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