Customer Reviews

Generation 13

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being a fan of prog rock and the concept album, I stumbled upon Gen 13 through this site. I was a bit hesitant to buy an album from a group, which I've heard one song over the past 20 years. I thought what the heck, it getting great reviews. Even though Saga seems to be getting "older" their sound has matured.
I'm not a huge fan of over-stylized keyboards, such as the early '80's sound seemed to have, Gen 13 does it just right. This is album has everything a concept album should; interesting story line, inserted melodies and flow, and muscial craftmanship. The subtle background voices blend well within the storyline, making the listener pick up something different each time.
Gen 13 made me go on to buy other Saga albums, much of those early on in their career. Being in my 30's I'm not biased toward the "cheesey 80's" sound, but Saga's current albums are more diverse when it comes to instruments.
Give this a listen, without reading the lyrics, and definatley not in a car! Great album to sit on the beach and listen too with earphones. This is a lost treasure, and recommend any DT fan, Pink Floyd fan etc... to check this out.

The original version was around 60 minutes. These new remastered version is uncut with 9 additional minutes of music. Saga is a band that can musically bring you any type of music and succeed. Any true Saga fan will accept anything they bring and enjoy it. A great concept album next to Queensryche "Operation: Mindcrime". Great vocals, guitars, keyboards and drums also a great story. How many bands can work together for 25 years and keep it's original members together ? ex: Rush, Saga, etc...
As a true Saga fan I enjoy everything they bring. But Saga first three albums "Saga", "Images at Twilight" and "Silent Night" are the true icons and signature albums.

To some, this CD is the absolute worst of Saga. To some, it's the absolute best. I believe this is one of the most structured and well thought out pieces of Rock Opera in a VERY VERY long time. The band worked hard on this CD and it shows. Every song, melody and note placed on this CD was placed with care to bring the story to life (as depressing as it is). Musically, it's not a virtuoso piece of music, but it doesn't need to be. It needs to be what it is to tell the story, and Saga does this exceedingly well. Unlike other bands like Dream Theater that tend to go over the top and kill the story underlying the song with their over-the-top technical playing, Saga did not do this on Generation 13.

I believe that, by far, this is definitely one of their best works and at the same time one of their most different and unique, but still with Saga flair. It is a hard listen because you have to listen to the entire CD in one sitting. The songs aren't structured in such a way as to bring one song out as 'radio hit' and one song doesn't really stand on it's own without the context of the story. Basically, you listen to the work as a whole or you don't. And, it's difficult to sit down and listen to a 60 minute CD. Worse, the story is depressing which makes the work even stronger considering how difficult it is to bring this level of detail out musically.

But, barring these problems, if you pop this CD into your player, turn the light out and listen to the story and the music, you have to be impressed by their mastery of both telling the story musically and the music itself.

If you are into concept albums like Tommy or The Wall, this one definitely sits right up there with these works. I definitely recommend it.

The production quality: 5 stars
The music itself: 5 stars
The sound quality: 5 stars

One of the most surprising grand efforts by saga in the 90s. This is the remastered version, sounds great but the art that was on the original cd, gone. Some of the cool photos from the original .....gone. So my only reason for 4 stars, they were cheap on the artwork. I guess they dont care about the fans.