Andrew Danso

If you glance at “Reflected’s” album artwork you’ll notice a question mark slap bang in the middle. This may well be a cryptic message from the band themselves, telling us ‘We don’t know what we want this to be’, to which we aptly reply ‘we know you know that’. “Reflected” is an album hopelessly confused. It doesn’t know whether to be artrock for a few minutes, light hearted Saga the next, and the neoproggy Marillion thereafter – it is all these things and none, that’s ultimately a trivialised reflection looking down memory lane.

Despite its progressive stamp, “Reflected’s” direction comes entirely from the vocal, performed by the newly recruited Janine Pusch, and this is the records biggest pitfall. Pusch’s lead role appears to be as free as possible, disregarding key change, track complexion, choruses and energy – it rubs off as if she’s singing in the Tub, with no sense of track playback. The music isn’t great either. If you nitpick, you can find coherency here and there, but otherwise it’s a complete long winded mess, with guitars conflicting against the vocal and wish wash production to match. The biggest thing reflected on Central Park’s second release is age, and confirms that this is a breed of progressive rock, dying out for the better.

3/10 Powerplay issue #129