Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: IQ
Label: Giant Electric Pea
Released: 1993
Runtime: 50:23
Rating: 4.5/5
To the delight of most of their fans, English neo-prog rock champions IQ welcomed original singer Peter Nicholls back into the fold in 1990, which also brought a long-awaited sonic rebirth. That was more than obvious on their fifth studio album, »Ever«, released in 1993. You could say IQ got a kind of fresh start back then, and ever since they’ve kept up an incredible consistency in turning out quality records, something plenty of their neo-prog rock peers can only envy. Original bassist Tim Esau, or rather his unsuccessful, short-lived successor Les Marshall, was replaced on »Ever« by the even more technically polished John Jowitt (ex-Ark, later of Jadis and Arena), who also contributed backing vocals. Jowitt, who won the Classic Rock Society’s Best Bassist award a full seven times, was an IQ member for a respectable twenty years before, somewhat ironically, being replaced by the returning Esau.
»Ever« was the first IQ album released on the independent label Giant Electric Pea, co-founded by guitarist Mike Holmes and keyboardist Martin Orford. That move had a major effect on the band’s newfound confidence, and they stopped worrying about a commercial breakthrough. On »Ever« IQ returned in triumph to their trademark symphonic prog rock sound, while the experiments with more commercial new wave and pop rock elements on the previous two albums, which didn’t live up to most fans’ wishes and expectations, were left behind as nothing but a bad memory. Compared to what followed in the coming years, when IQ grew increasingly dark and ambient, »Ever« has a fairly upbeat mood overall, though it certainly doesn’t lack melancholic and dramatic moments.
Nicholls, who also wrote all the lyrics, noticeably changed his singing approach at this stage of his career, and it got better: a touch less ‘whiny’ and more assertive, with a more flexible vocal range. Orford had by then given up the synth tech of the eighties, which really shows on »Ever«: unlike the IQ albums of the eighties, which in many ways are products of a particular era, this one has passed the test of time with flying colors and sounds like it was made yesterday. Holmes kept on crafting decisive, often punchy, at times almost hard-rock guitar passages, which were always key to keeping IQ from sounding too much like Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett-era Genesis, their main idols from the golden age of progressive rock.
Of the six pieces on »Ever«, only two run past the ten-minute mark. The first of the two is the opening classic »The Darkest Hour«, which also came out as a single and quickly became a regular fixture in IQ’s live set. A dramatic instrumental intro gives way to an elegant section with a gorgeous symphonic arrangement, tied together superbly by Nicholls’ theatrical-as-ever vocals. Orford and Holmes trade lovely keyboard and guitar harmonies as if their lives depended on it. Despite the complex rhythmic nuances, there’s outstanding melodiousness throughout, led by a lovely chorus, while Nicholls’ singing carries an unmistakable optimistic drive after the band’s successful rise from the ashes. »Fading Senses« has a long, almost elegiac intro with a suitably ‘crestfallen’ Nicholls. In the middle of the instrumental section the track picks up even darker ambient dimensions, with plenty of aggressive guitar passages and ominously tinted synth curtains. »Out Of Nowhere«, which opens with a dramatic rhythmic build-up, is pretty compact by usual IQ standards, with an outstanding, hypermelodic chorus and a mighty guitar riff, which makes it accessible even to less demanding music fans.
The 14-plus-minute »Further Away« is an epic adventure of complex rhythmic shifts and sprawling symphonic arrangements, bound together in fascinating fashion by Nicholls’ melodramatic singing. A pastoral flute melody can also be heard in the background. The mysterious-sounding intro makes way for a punchy, complex instrumental section where an anxious atmosphere slowly builds. Jowitt’s fantastic bass lines accentuate the lively tempo changes, while Nicholls’ vocal theatricality is once again a story in itself. The epic hits its climax with Holmes’ monumental guitar solo, followed by a triumphant finale that contains one of the best endings in the history of the English neo-prog champions.
»Leap Of Faith« opens with a piano melody, after which Nicholls’ vocals quickly build a layered, slightly ‘Victorian’ atmosphere, with the chorus once again blessed with strong backing harmonies and backed by shimmering synth textures. Powered by a slower tempo, »Came Down« is the album’s solemn closer, in classic IQ style, although you can’t miss that they learned a whole lot of tricks for creating a triumphant symphonic prog revelation from their great role models, namely Genesis.
On »Ever« IQ revived their winning symphonic prog rock formula, gave their sound a fitting modern polish and came up with some seriously thrilling pieces, mostly bursting with melodrama, so it’s no surprise this is one of the key achievements of their colorful career and, at the same time, of the British (neo) prog scene of the 1990s. It was bands like IQ, Pendragon, Jadis and, a little later, Arena and Pallas who managed to revitalize the old-school British prog rock scene in the nineties, after it had looked like the neo-prog scene would become a thing of the past once the eighties came to a close and Marillion morphed into an art rock outfit. The positive response to »Ever« gave IQ a major boost of momentum in forging their upcoming conceptual double studio project, »Subterranea« (1997).
Lineup
Peter Nicholls – vocals
Mike Holmes – guitars
Martin Orford – keyboards, flute, backing vocals
John Jowitt – bass guitar, backing vocals
Paul Cook – drums
Production
Mike Holmes
Track list
1. The Darkest Hour (10:52)
2. Fading Senses (6:35)
3. Out of Nowhere (5:09)
4. Further Away (14:30)
5. Leap of Faith (7:21)
6. Came Down (5:56)
