What: Album - Lost in the New Real
Who: Arjen Anthony Lucassen
When: 2012
Lost in the New Real is the latest solo album from Arjen Anthony Lucassen - and it's pretty damn good. A 2 CD set of awesome tracks in the progressive rock/crossover prog genre, with a cast of incredible musicians. Arjen does the lead vocals himself on this album which is unusual for his work. He's got a very good voice and it works well with this material.
As is standard for Mr. Lucassen, it's a concept album with a science fiction-esque theme and the story follows Mr. L, a twenty-first century man who was cryo-preserved at the moment of clinical death from a terminal disease. The album begins as Mr. L is being revived at a point in the distant future, when technology has advanced enough to cure his disease. Mr. L finds himself in a world that has drastically changed - to the point that the line between what’s real and what’s not is no longer clear.
Mr. L’s appointed psychological advisor (voiced by Rutger Hauer) is tasked with helping him emotionally adapt to this strange new world. The story follows his emotional journey as he is confronted with both serious and comical aspects of the “New Real”, and desperately tries to decide if he can find a meaningful place within it.
There's some wonderful lyrics and great song titles such as "Pink Beatles in a Purple Zeppelin", "Dr. Slumber’s Eternity Home" and "You Have Entered the Reality Zone" along with some of Lucassen's unique interpretation of 5 great cover tracks, and these fit into the story line very well. I particularly like his chunky and haunting rendition of Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine".
All of the material (with the exception of the covers, of course) was written solely by Lucassen.
Click HERE for more info about the album from Lucassen's website and HERE for a good review of the album on YouTube.
An excellent album that I've enjoyed listening to quite a few times now.
9/10
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