Perfunctory guitar solos, pretentiously obscure lyrics and pseudo jazzy piano noodling - welcome to the modern world of progressive pop music.
You'd think by now that bands would have learnt from the errors of the past but The Dreaming Tree, a five-piece band from the West Midlands step in all the same cowpats.
The unwillingness (or inability) to write simply and clearly means that the songs continually get bogged down with weighty metaphors.
At least on their website they have the grace to laugh at themselves by posting a negative review in The Music Critic that rightly makes fun of the bombastic and grammatically challenged press release. This claims that their sound is "rich in dynamics and wry with an impelling quirkiness".
If only they could have brought a bit of humour to bear on the album we might have been spared gibberish like "see the crouch in her smile" (Arcadia) or "she dwells in caged hearts" (Moult).
The band claim a kinship with modern proggers like LA's Spock's Beard and you can also hear the influence of old school British groups like Genesis or Gentle Giant.
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One major problem is that despite attempts to write epic and complex tunes, most tracks end up sounding disconcertingly like Duran Duran b-sides. The dense production values don't do them any favours either -even the power chords sound muted.
Their musical prowess is obvious but they seem unsure whether to focus these skills on pop, funk, jazz or rock and tracks like Love And The Heart Slender Version Of The Truth and Ophidia manage to include elements of each in the same song.
The result is a sprawling album that will appeal more at an adult orientated soft rock audience than to listeners looking for something more..erm..progressive.
The Dreaming Tree website
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