Today is the official North American release of Fly Paper - the 5th album from Detroit prog-rockers Tiles. The album is notable to Rush fans because of its numerous connections to Rush; Alex Lifeson plays on the track Sacred and Mundane, the album was produced by Terry Brown, and Hugh Syme did the album art in addition to playing keyboards on 2 tracks.

Fly Paper is a very solid progressive hard rock album that I think most Rush fans would enjoy, and Alex Lifeson's guitar contributions on Sacred and Mundane are absolutely brilliant and really shape the song. The 3-minute mp3 edit of the track which was released online last month really does not do the full (nearly 6-minute) version justice. There were plans to release a promotional video for this song in the run-up to the album release, but due to the band having to change production companies things are a bit behind schedule. It should be forthcoming in a few weeks. I've been listening to the album off and on for the last couple of weeks and can honestly say I've really enjoyed it. Outside of Sacred and Mundane my favorite track is the opener Hide In My Shadow. It has a catchy, very Rush-like riff and the layered, haunting vocals in the chorus conjure up visions of Alice in Chains. The entire album is quite good and I definitely recommend it to any fan of progressive rock.

To mark the album's release, Tiles has revamped their website and I highly suggest you check it out to learn a bit more about the band, the album and all the Rush connections. You can actually download mp3 versions of 2 of the tracks off the album; Back and Forth and Crowded Emptiness. There's also this great interview with Tiles guitarist Chris Herin at Morow.com. Several reviews of the album are also available online: Music Connection, Progscape.com, Ytsejam.com, MetalExpressRadio.com.

Tiles will be performing a casual 45-minute set at Record Time in Roseville, MI this Saturday, Feb. 2nd and the official Fly Paper CD release party will occur on Sunday, March 9th at the Magic Bag Theater in Ferndale, MI. For details, see the Tiles website.

Chris Herin was also kind enough to agree to answer a few questions from yours truly. And as a bonus - he even forwarded on a few questions to Terry Brown too! I should have their answers in a future post; hopefully sometime later this week.

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