We’re back with my running series on the albums of The Tangent, and I’m glad I waited before continuing, because not only do I really like Not As Good As The Book, the band’s fourth album, but I can actually try and answer the question of whether the album is as good as the book, because I was able to grab a copy of the special limited edition version that actually comes with a book – a 94 page novella to be exact, written by Andy Tillison and illustrated by Antoine Ettori.This might be the first and only time you get a record AND a book review, so let’s get into it.

Another album, another lineup change. This time out we have Jakko Jakszyk (later of King Crimson fame) stepping into the lead guitar spot, but the rest of the gang, including MVPs Theo Travis and Jonas Reingold are back, as are Guy Manning and Jamie Salazar. The album is divided into two sections, the first one made up of shorter tracks and subtitled A Crisis in Mid Life. It kicks off with “A Crisis in Mid Life” and it’s a relatively short (at seven minutes) rocker that features a great chorus hook and some great bass synth that gets truly funky. That funkiness plays out over much of the album, both in Tillison and Manning’s keyboards and Reingold’s bass. There are shades of Jethro Tull as “Lost in London (25 Years Later)” opens, and while it doesn’t reach the lofty heights of its predecessor on A Place in the Queue, when it gets to the solos it takes on a jazzy cadence that is really nice. Both Jakszyk and Manning really shine here. “The Ethernet” continues Tillison’s preoccupation with human connection losing itself to an increasingly virtual world – this is in 2008, mind you. The melodies hover in this major key, giving the song a pop vibe even as its tempo and pace slow to more forlorn shores. Things get gradually more epic around the halfway point, but in all honesty this is the first track (despite some great Theo Travis moments) where I lose the thread a bit. A spark of life comes back on the funky instrumental “Celebrity Purée” showcasing how in under four minutes (is that a record for The Tangent?) the band can get a vibe across and gel like no one else.

The title track works much more successfully than “The Ethernet” for me; it’s bouncy, more upbeat and with a great hook in the chorus where things almost take a sad tone before bouncing back to the main melodic theme. Stacked vocals are really nice, too. We get more Travis Theo flute as well, which is never a bad thing. The instrumental break is announced in a beautiful wash of piano before some acoustic guitar comes in. “A Sale of Two Souls” has maybe the most acoustic guitar I’ve heard to date on a Tangent track, and it gets very horny (sorry not sorry) in sections – I think this counts as the ballad of the album – a lot more Tull notes peppered in, more in the acoustic guitar work and arrangements than the use of flute. Finally the first section ends with “Bat Out of Basildon” and its nasty, skronky horn intro. Love the percussion on this one, showing off how Salazar leaves his mark. It’s a ride for freedom, escaping the bolts and chains in the connected world and just taking off on a righteous bike, even as Tillison laments that “no one writes those biker songs no more…” Some killer soloing from Jakszyk livens up the song before we move into the two massive epics that close Not As Good as the Book out.

Subtited Throwing Metal at the Sky, the first track “Four Egos, One War” is actually an old Parallel or 90 Degrees track, and features guest vocals by Julie King on the first section titled Ours. Ominous, sparse guitars and exotic lead lines emphasize the isolation and forgetfulness of a constant barrage of war, its inevitability echoed in the encroaching drums and sound that gets much heavier by the time of the second section, titled Theirs and sung by Tillison. It’s much more of an upbeat rocker with plenty of loud ,in your face keyboard pyrotechnics. Next is the Ours Reprise which is a short interlude sung by Julie King and Tillison, leading into His, featuring Guy Manning on vocals. It’s another funky number, and really as I listen through again the suite comes across as separate songs glued together by a few common melodic themes. Perfectly fine, especially when it has a little more energy to it. Finally we come to Mine, sung by Jakszyk and the first thing I noticed is dude has a FINE voice – makes sense he’d take over Adrien Bellow’s position in King Crimson. The section also isn’t all guitar heroics – the quasi-laid back mood is kept although there are some nice moments for the keyboards before all the themes crash back to finish the track.

That just leaves the 22-minute epic “The Full Gamut” and at this point with close to 1,000 words I’ll just say it’s the full monty in terms of what the Tangent bring to the modern progressive rock genre. Extended solos, lot of hooks and stylistic changes throughout, with so much keyboard it could make Rick Wakeman blush. It’s honestly a lot with over 90 minutes of music, and may not be as successful as A Place in the Queue, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dig a whole lot of Not As Good as the Book.

As for the book itself? It’s fine, I’d say on part with the music (is the title a lie? Up to you…). It’s dystopian future babblespeak with a heart, taking details from Tillison’s own life (the band are featured characters in it) and injecting both them and his concerns into a science fiction take that goes in a lot of different directions, ultimately ending with the music we now have in our hands. The art by Antoine Ettori is really nice, and I come away exhausted but happy from the whole experience.