Search - Saga :: Worlds Apart

80's sound at its best.

R. Darling | St. Louis, MO | 09/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great 80's sound from a great band but still sounds good today. (My daughter even likes the CD!)"

Saga's Big Breakthrough

snowleopard | Oregon | 11/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Saga is quite possibly the most underrated progressive band from the 1980's, even though they had a few hits, and this was their best selling album.



Before World's Apart, Saga put out a few pretty good albums, the musicianship was good, and they were nice to listen to, especially for Prog Rock/Art Rock fans, but with World's Apart, everything came together, and the hands of producer Ruppert Hine helped a great deal.



On this album Michael Sadler's vocals took a step up. The story goes that Hine told Sadler to stop singing like he was in the choir and let it go, and Sadler responded. Another plus was that the sounds and instruments were stacked like never before, with guitars and synths playing double lines, and counter pointing each other to great effect, something that really helped shape the "Saga sound". The synths on this album are also grand and beautiful, the band having recently purchased a PPG synthesizer (used also by Tangerine Dream and Thomas Dolby during that time) and Jim Gilmour got some wonderful sounds from it. And Steve Negas added the Simmons drums to his kit, but didn't overuse them, which was common at that time.



And the songs are great. All of them. While Hine helped add a little pop sensibility, there's still just awesome art-rock music here. Perhaps the album is now a little dated, the songs and music on it are still top notch, and a great intro to anyone interested in the band, or if it's missing from your Saga collection. I played it for the first time in a while the other day, and 26 years after it's release, it's still a fantastic listen."