RED BAZAR: Tales from the Bookcase (2016)

Because I want to be honest with you, first of all I should mention that I had no idea about this band until almost a month ago. Then, I discovered the video of the song ‘Queen of the Night Part.1’ on YouTube, and I got very interested, mostly because Pete Jones is singing in it. 

But let’s take it from the start… 

Red Bazar is an English band, formed as a trio in 2007. Their first two albums ‘Connections - 2007) & ‘Different Beings – 2010) were instrumental ones. At the end of 2013 the members of the band decided to make some major changes, so they hired a second keyboard player, and also asked for the help of Pete Jones on vocals. (I am not sure if Pete Jones is considered as a full-time member yet. Time will show I guess). In 2016, Red Bazar released their first album as a 5-piece outfit, named as ‘Tales from the Bookcase’. Pete Jones, further than the vocals, participated in the songwriting as well. Most of the songs were inspired by Pete’s beloved books, hence the title of the album.

Now let’s take a quick look into the album itself:

Tales from the Bookcase includes 8 songs, and has a total running time of almost 70 minutes.  By making an easy calculation, you can understand that almost all the songs are rather long, with the only exception being the album’s intro ‘In the Beginning’ which is 3 minutes long. Further than that, the shortest song is Queen of the Night Part 1 which is almost 7 minutes long.

  The general style of the album is a not- so-complicated and listener friendly Modern Prog Rock, or Neo Prog if you like, with heavy guitar riffs in almost all the songs, nice melodic turns, very good production, and of course very good vocals!

  I could say that is a rather “massive” and “tight” album, without many ups and downs, so it is kind of difficult to pick the songs that are making the difference. Speaking for myself, based on the 3-4 first listenings I’ve done so far, I could say that the songs that I like the most are: Queen of the Night Pt.1, Calling Her On and Sunset for a New World.

  Tales from the Bookcase is a very interesting – to say the least – album, that guitar lovers will appreciate and enjoy it a lot. Because it is a rather “easy going album”, people who are not into Progressive Rock will also enjoy it. It is a very good choice, and if you buy it, I’m sure you will not regret it.

                     My Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.