IQ are back with their third studio album in just over a decade, with the same line-up for all three, four of whom who played on ‘Tales From The Lush Attic’ all the way back in 1983. Michael Holmes has been the only constant through the band’s career, but there was a stable line-up from ‘Ever’ to ‘Dark Matter’, and it is only the one album after that period, ‘Frequency’, which truly failed to shine, not bad for a band with the longevity of this one. Peter Nicholls (lead & backing vocals), Michael Holmes (guitars), Tim Esau (bass, bass pedals), and Paul Cook (drums, percussion) along with “newbie” Neil Durant (keyboards) may not be the most prolific, but arguably their output has been the most dynamic and consistent of the band’s career. This is not a group who are going through the motions but instead are releasing some of their most important and fascinating music yet.
When I reviewed their last album, 2019’s ‘Resistance’ I said that one of the things that truly stood out for me was the confidence of the band, particularly that of Paul Cook, and here we see that being taken to yet another level. Opener “The Unknown Door”, which is the longest song on the album (and one of their longest ever) at 22 minutes, tells you everything you need to know about this IQ. Paul can be hard-hitting, blasting around the kit, or providing emphasis by sitting on his hands and doing nothing, Tim provides complexity with his hands and stability with his feet, Neil has long ago moved away from being compared to Martin Orford and has created his own niche in the band with banks of sounds and a happy understanding of the relationship between overplaying and providing support, while Michael can be bombastic and loud or picking an acoustic. There are multiple layers, the threads interweaving and combining the sounds into a majestic whole, and then at the front is the irrepressible Peter Nicholls. To me he has always been as important to IQ as Geoff Mann was to Twelfth Night, or Fish to Marillion. Yes, each band has released highly enjoyable albums without those frontmen, but were they true to the essence? I think not.
This is not an album from people heading gently into older age but instead is a band who still have something to prove, proudly progressive, moving forward. It is a band working together, with little in the way of flashiness as instead this feels like a collective release with everyone knowing their place in the pantheon and what they need to achieve. Consequently, it is a release which I loved the very first time I played it, and it has grown on me even more with the repeated listenings. There is a presence, a dynamic here which is difficult to explain, a majesty which only comes from a band still on the top of their game after more than four decades.
This may well be their finest release since ‘Subterranea’, not something I say lightly at all. Essential.
