Progressive Rock Focus

I decided to listen to this album with an open mind, because I'll be honest I've always disliked it. I've listened to it twice this morning and I'll try to be objective. In doing the research for this (yes! I do research!) I discovered that Eddy Orford left the project early on. And it sounds to me, frankly, like this album lacks anyone who knows what they are doing from a production side. On the first track, Future Times/Rejoice, the guitar, keyboard and vocal are all fighting each other for space in the mix, with the result that it sounds a complete mess. Yes did a similar thing with Going For The One, which is one of the most sonically busy songs I've ever heard, but there it works; here it doesn't. Steve Howe's guitar sounds like he's putting it through a bargain basement amp, Wakeman's keyboard sounds like a cheap Casio and Anderson's voice sounds thin and out of tune at times. In fact, the contrast with the Going For The One album couldn...

My mate James is the world's biggest progger. He has so many prog CDs he had to reinforce the floor of his flat. He once had a record player which was so expensive it took a team of four people to come in and install it. Some of these things might be true. Anyway, James asked me to review a Transatlantic album, so here we are. SMPT:e is the first album by  the prog supergroup which features Neal Morse (once of Spock's Beard), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Pete Trewavas (Marillion) and Roine Stolt (the Flower Kings). The style is very much classic neo-prog. It's almost a case study in how to make a prog album. Long songs, tick. Odd time signatures, tick. Big sound, tick. And so on. This is very much an album which consolidates the progressive rock sound rather than extends it. The first track, for example. It's 31 minutes long. It starts with a short atmospheric scene-setter before going into a high-tempo instrumental section and from there into more of a song section. Y...

Recently (https://progressive-rock-focus.blogspot.com/2025/01/true-by-jon-anderson-featuring-band.html) I reviewed the new Jon Anderson album. Well, he and his Band Geeks (that's what they are called) dropped a live album consisting of original Yes songs. Interestingly, he has stuck with the longer songs, including my absolutely favourite Yes song Awaken, from Going For The One. Now Jon Anderson is, at the time of writing, 80 years old. You might expect an 80-year-old to be struggling somewhat with his vocal performance, but if anything he sounds better than ever. I'm listening to Yours Is No Disgrace, and it sounds like the singing on the record. That is remarkable. This isn't just a "doesn't he sound great for his age" review. This is a "he sounds great, full stop" review. Bear in mind I'm not the biggest Jon Anderson fan, but I have to hand it to him, this is top notch. And the band. They are superb. They sound exactly like Yes. So much like Y...

I am going into this album completely cold. I haven't read anything about it. I am just going to listen to it and give my first impressions. Of course, first impressions are largely wrong when it comes to prog albums. It took me about three years to realise that Can-Utility and the Coastliners was one of the best Genesis songs, for example, after completely ignoring it. The first song is 'Objects Outlive Us' and it's twenty-three minutes long. First thing to say is that it's clearly Steven Wilson, with the complex harmonic turns and rhythms you expect. But there's something quite new about the vocal delivery. I can't quite pin it down yet, but it's something sharper, more focussed. Wilson is known for those beautiful washy vocal arrangements, but this is more direct. And it's great. The whole song is absolutely fizzing with musical ideas. In terms of the song's structure, it's more of the 'good bits stitched together' school of prog r...

What, Jethro Tull again? But Harold, you've just done a Jethro Tull review, what are you thinking of? Let's get Ian Anderson's voice out of the way first, because I've already talked about it last time. Yes, the very up-front sound is odd. Yes, there's a lot more spoken word stuff and less singing. Yes, the sound is different. But it's fine, in fact in places it's very rich in tone. Get over it! The album starts with Puppet and the Puppet Master, and you're thinking a bit of piano? That's not very Jethro Tull! And then it's the old bait and switch, because they go straight in to the most Tull sounding thing I've heard since Songs From the Wood. The thing that comes across most is that they sound like they're having fun as a band. This isn't an Ian Anderson solo album, there's a real band in there. This is probably down to the origins of the album as a set of instrumental pieces dating back quite a few years.  Next song is Curious ...

I approach today's Progressive Rock Focus with some trepidation, because I'm talking about Jethro Tull. That needs clarification. If you think Jethro Tull is more than just Ian Anderson, and has to include Martin Barre and Dave Pegg, then this won't be Jethro Tull for you. Maybe you'd also include Barriemore Barlow as drummer. Whatever. Let's call a thing a thing. This is an Ian Anderson project, with some additional musicians. Let's dwell no more on band politics. The music is as interesting as ever. Ian Anderson has reverted to a 'classic' 1970s Tull sound, and put aside the excessive synths of Under Wraps and other aberrations. There's lots of flute, lots of acoustic guitar, lots of bell sounds. Maybe in form and rhythm it's a little less adventurous than say Songs From The Wood, but not much. You could do a lot worse than starting with track 8, Trickster (And the Mistletoe). We're immediately in classic Tull territory, and it's great....