Arjen Anthony Lucassen
Lost in the New Real
Inside Out Music
2012
Arjen is back with his sophomore solo studio album after almost 18 years. In the meantime, he made himself a respected name in the rock/metal scene while having participated in bands such as Bodine & Vengeance, and also by having created his own musical ships like: Ayreon, Star One, Ambeon, Strange Hobby, Stream of Passion & Guilt Machine. One thing is sure… Arjen knows exactly how to express his musical creativity and has done so all these years.
“Lost in the New Real” is a concept album…it follows the story of Mr. L (voiced by Arjen), a twenty-first century man revived in a distant future where everything has changed. Mr. L’s appointed psychological advisor is Voight-Kampff whose role, as a narrator, is being played by the actor Rutger Hauer from Blade Runner. Arjen has taken care of the lead vocals and played all the instruments here except for the drums, the flutes, the violin & the cello. The rather spacy, psychedelic & contemporary atmosphere of the album… is embellished with 70s-80s-90s prog rock, pop-rock, hard rock, psychedelic, atmospheric & folk elements… while bands such as: The Beatles, Jethro Tull, ELO, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Alan Parsons Project, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin & Porcupine Tree among others… will cross your mind as you’ll be listening to this album.
“Lost in the New Real” contains 15 original songs… 10 of them… are included in the first (main) CD and the other 5 in the bonus CD. Those 5 songs are not accurately fitting the original concept… that’s why they are part of the bonus second CD along with the covers of Pink Floyd (“Welcome to the Machine”), Blue Öyster Cult (“Veteran of the Psychic Wars”), Led Zeppelin (“Battle of Evermore”), The Alan Parsons Project (“Some Other Time”) & Frank Zappa (“I’m the Slime”).
The album has some very good songs… the production is great and it will offer you some quite wonderful time while listening to it. The Beatles pop-like melodies are nicely blended with rock, folk, hard and prog features. What anyone will notice from the very first moment is the lack of personality in this album. It’s one of those works that will make you think… hmm I’ve heard that before, this is very familiar… very good but it reminds me of something… not in terms of copying musical themes but in the music character a music piece of work must have. If you listen to the album without knowing what is it… then it’s impossible to guess that’s Arjen new solo release. That thing, of course, doesn’t reduce the musical quality of the album itself… neither that means you won’t enjoy it. Arjen is a truly talented guy and it’s actually impossible to deliver something unpleasant…
“Lost in the New Real” is a concept album…it follows the story of Mr. L (voiced by Arjen), a twenty-first century man revived in a distant future where everything has changed. Mr. L’s appointed psychological advisor is Voight-Kampff whose role, as a narrator, is being played by the actor Rutger Hauer from Blade Runner. Arjen has taken care of the lead vocals and played all the instruments here except for the drums, the flutes, the violin & the cello. The rather spacy, psychedelic & contemporary atmosphere of the album… is embellished with 70s-80s-90s prog rock, pop-rock, hard rock, psychedelic, atmospheric & folk elements… while bands such as: The Beatles, Jethro Tull, ELO, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Alan Parsons Project, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin & Porcupine Tree among others… will cross your mind as you’ll be listening to this album.
“Lost in the New Real” contains 15 original songs… 10 of them… are included in the first (main) CD and the other 5 in the bonus CD. Those 5 songs are not accurately fitting the original concept… that’s why they are part of the bonus second CD along with the covers of Pink Floyd (“Welcome to the Machine”), Blue Öyster Cult (“Veteran of the Psychic Wars”), Led Zeppelin (“Battle of Evermore”), The Alan Parsons Project (“Some Other Time”) & Frank Zappa (“I’m the Slime”).
The album has some very good songs… the production is great and it will offer you some quite wonderful time while listening to it. The Beatles pop-like melodies are nicely blended with rock, folk, hard and prog features. What anyone will notice from the very first moment is the lack of personality in this album. It’s one of those works that will make you think… hmm I’ve heard that before, this is very familiar… very good but it reminds me of something… not in terms of copying musical themes but in the music character a music piece of work must have. If you listen to the album without knowing what is it… then it’s impossible to guess that’s Arjen new solo release. That thing, of course, doesn’t reduce the musical quality of the album itself… neither that means you won’t enjoy it. Arjen is a truly talented guy and it’s actually impossible to deliver something unpleasant…