THE LONG DIVISION

In a genre where lyrics often are thrown away or deal in fantasy, 3RDegree instead release a relevant album in a US election year that doesn't tell you who to vote for but rather marvel at the ridiculousness of it all. Refreshing! Because of this, "side two" can possibly be overlooked but there's some great things happening on the back half of the album starting with a gorgeous "A Work Of Art" propelled by drums played with brushes and a saxophone and flute and strangely no guitar! But that is made up for later on with the guitar-centric "The Millions Of Last Moments". Then a prog epic "Memetic Pandemic" and then a straight ahead rock crescendo in "A Nihilist's Love Song". "Televised" speaks of reality talk shows and what happens to it's participants once the klieg lights are shut off. But, back to the first half, with the album opener "You're Fooling Yourselves" you have a song which spends one verse spouting the horrible lingo of the left and another verse spouting the words of the right. The bridge and choruses, speak as the people telling the partisans that they are destroying a great nation with their refusals to budge or even talk. "Exit Strategy" is proggy in it's time signatures but is mostly an Ambrosia sounding track followed by the Steely Dan meets King Crimson "The Socio-Economic Petri Dish". 2 minutes of the most intricate parts on the album followed by a song that could have been on AJA save the mention of bailouts and handouts! Next up is a song that sounds like a confession from a political strategist. You know the guy. He comes on the talk show and says all the tired expressions like "at the end of the day", "Let's take our country back" and the like. Sounds like XTC or some early 80's smart pop meets prog. And then the very short lyric sheet of "The Ones To Follow" ends side 1 with a Marillion-ish guitar line and energetic band. 3RDegree are progressive in the simple fact that they mix the old formulas from the best known 70's prog bands without going off on wild tangents but rather focus in on a great song and don't waste our time with useless lyrics. They can really be a bridge between prog and smart rock (like fans of Squeeze, XTC and newer more mainstream writers that mess with time signature changes and mood swings) the way Dream Theater was/is a bridge between prog and metal. Wouldn't it be nice to have another prog band with a DT sized fan base in our midst? Let's hope people in prog circles like anyone on Prog Archives will take notice of what 3RDegree is doing.