Part Two of the Hors Portee concept piece, Highlight, is the vocal oriented of the pair, and surprisingly enough the stronger of the two pieces. Sure, there's plenty of great compositions on Instrumental, but Highlight instantly strikes a chord, especially if you like and appreciate upbeat French progressive rock and bands such as Ange or Mona Lisa. There's a lightheartedness and aura of theatricality to the lead vocals on this album that are very refreshing and mesh well with the more prog rock arrangements. Most of the same musicians from Instrumental are on board once again, and you get some of the same songs now with added lyrics plus some new ones. Listening to the two albums one after the other, you do hear some familiar themes and arrangements, but as a whole the two are very different from each other. Once again Jerry Goodman is the featured guest, and his distinctive violin is all over a few of the pieces here. Chardeau adds plenty of keyboards to the tracks, many of which are also sprinkled with flute, sax, Mellotron, sitar, guitar, mandolin, and various forms of percussion. One particular lovely piece is "Mortelle Mort", which features some nice piano, acoustic guitar, and alluring French vocals. It's a very decadent song on a very classy and enjoyable album.
Track Listing
1. La Route
2. Cycle 1
3. Trafic Nocturne Intro
4. Trafic Intense
5. Mac Maudit Cheri
6. Pacific Sud
7. Caoutchouc
8. Cycle 2
9. Si...tard
10. Tard
11. Mortelle Mort
12. Galaxies Alternatives Final
13. Le Cingle Des Galaxies
14. Deambule / Cycle 3
15. Cycles
16. Home Rythm
17. Home
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