TRACK LIST:

1.  This Life 2:30 
2.  Hurt 5:35 
3.  Moving On 6:02 
4.  My Home Town 3:56 
5.  Brave New Land 1:02 
6.  The Journey 6:21 
7.  Towers of Hope 2:10 
8.  Demons 5:16 
9.  Morning Sunlight 2:43 
10. Joe 11:14 
11. A Dream 1:11
12. The Visionary 6:00 
13. Journey's End 7:41 
14. The Travellers Lament 1:15 
15. Home 4:13

LINEUP:

Rob Reed - keyboards; bass, guitars, recorder; vocals
Christina Booth - lead vocals
Chris Fry - guitars 
Dan Fry - bass
Martin Rosser - guitar
Allan Mason-Jones - drums 
With:
Troy Donockley - Uilleann pipes, whistles
Lee Goodall - tenor saxophone 
Lorrain King - backing vocals
Mal Pope - backing vocals
& more 

Analysis. It's still Bob Reed who penned all the music for "Home", while the lyrics are credited to Steve Reed. This is a concept album, telling a story of a young woman from Liverpool who, burning with the desire to 'find herself', leaves her homeland to travel across the United States. To be brief, having had her share of grief there, she comes to a realization of the values common to all mankind and returns home. In the end, there is much common ground between this plot and that of Marillion's "Brave". On the musical plane however, Magenta and Marillion are hardly consonant matters, the only exception to this rule to be mentioned in due time. So, the first disc is made up of 15 tracks, and I'll begin with the shorter ones, with your permission. This Life and Towers of Hope are soft piano- and strings-laden ballads, as also is Morning Sunlight (whose 'key' words are "I hide my love"), though it is acoustic guitar and bass that most often back up Christina's singing this time around. While having for the most part a full-band sound, the title track is not devoid of a ballad-like feeling too. In fact, it is obvious everywhere except for the piano postlude and the mid instrumental section, in which can be heard some fine whistle solos from Iona's Troy Donockley. The only instrumental opus, The Travellers Lament, is at the same time the only track on the album that doesn't have any magenta shades in its color palette, sounding not unlike Troy's solo numbers on Uilleann pipes, in which is no surprise since this piece is a kind of benefit performance for him. The best of the shorter tracks would be the heroine's lament for the capital of Rock music (why not?), My Home Town, which is largely instrumental though. Rob Reed performs most of the instrumental parts here, shining with equal resourcefulness when playing acoustic guitar, mandolin, bass and pianos. Now I have to note that with the exception of The Travellers Lament, all the said tracks are among some of the band's greatest achievements in the field of originality, though on the other hand it's clear Magenta just didn't set out not to sound like anybody else, and it seems they never intended to hide the fact that they have numerous teachers in absentia, Elton John included. Well, instead of enumerating the artists Magenta themselves list as their benefactors, I'll better mention only those whose echoes I've caught personally. The remaining two shorter pieces can't be viewed outside of the context of their follow-ups. Brave New Land is just the introductory theme of The Journey, which in its turn is the only heavily derivative track among the longer ones, the music now evoking classic Yes (think the eponymous Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe album), now strongly resembling "Big Generator" - especially often in the parts with a choir singing and in guitar riffs. On the other compositions the group with ease play fully original music whenever they want to, at times intermixing their style with others', the influences of Yes and Pink Floyd being prevalent in such cases. Hurt begins and unfolds as academic symphonic Art-Rock, which yet doesn't arouse any associations. Somewhere in the middle - right after a classical-like interlude - appears a landscape typical of the "Dark Side of the Moon", while the finale is the only place on the recording which brings to mind Marillion. While Moving On, the heroine complains "I'm Falling Down", the composition as such developing similarly to the preceding piece (save the finale for sure), though this one is richer in chamber-like movements. The song Demons starts off in a style that reminds me of Jacuzzi from Steve Hackett's "Defector", later on the group playing either original organ- and guitar-laden stuff with edgy textures or entering yet again the territory of Pink Floyd. These three are good in all senses, often creating vivid metaphorical pictures in the mind of yours truly. However, the best of all pieces on the first disc would be the longest three, Joe, The Visionary (with A Dream as its intro) and Journey's End, following one another, most being notable for inventive string arrangements, though these are one of the hallmarks of the entire recording. While some echoes of Yes and Pink Floyd (plus those of Genesis on the former) can still be heard, most of the music on each is just Magenta and is mainly classic Art-Rock with numerous instrumental sections featuring enough twists and turns to please anybody into this genre.

Disc 2 - "The New York Suite" (40 min)