I am currently listening to The Missing Link.  I am sad to say that it’s exactly what I expected.  After last year’s The World Waits, I wasn’t expecting to be excited by the music.  Neither of these albums even compare to The Return of the Frog Queen.  I guess some people reach their creative peaks very early in their lives. 

The four “new” songs are unmemorable, at best.  Enigk’s lyrics and vocal lines are very good, but with the lulling instrumentation flowing behind them, the songs flow right in one ear and out the other.  The songs, over time, will find some glue to the musical receptors in my head, but as of yet, there’s nothing to grab onto.

The live versions of the other songs are good.  If you liked the album versions of the songs, you will surely enjoy the live ones.  I like the live versions better, myself.  The energy seems more raw and that seems to breathe new life into them.  I know when we saw him perform in December the songs were much more interesting than when I listened to the last disc.  Don’t, however, let the term “live” mislead you.  The last five songs were recorded “live in studio”.  So, yes, that’s live.  But not live as in there was an audience present.  And if you are going to record songs this way and call them live, you might as well call studio-tracked songs “live” as well since each instrument was, technically, live. 

Overall, if you are a hardcore Enigk fan, you probably need this CD.  If not, it’s probably a waste of your money.