SUNDAY

Obscurity. That word... Obscure albums, lingering in dusty archives or hidden away in boxes in the attic. when found re-released with superlative words and original artwork. I am not trying to be funny. Honestly, I love obscure prog, in particular british bands. That is not the point. The point being that all things obscure aren't brilliant. Sometimes genius can be found but often enough there's nothing behind "the original artwork", just fun and games.

Obscure... Yes. Sunday is an obscure band and I treasure this album, I do. I bought it several moons ago and have not regretted it once. The amount of hammond organ is immense and that can be quite enough for me. But how about them songs? What do they amount to? "Love is life" and "I couldn't face you" is two pieces of great, organ driven slabs of progressive rock, the latter more of a ballad but still... "Love is life" has some wonderful drumming aswell. The main opus of the album is the great and varied "Sad man reaching Utopia". It is an epic of rough qualities going through several moods and changes. A great track, really worth exploring for those who've missed it.

All in all I'd say the album is a good one but not essential in any way. It is a pleasant album with one foot in prog, one in blues, an arm in funky Santana style, the other in hard rock and the heart in the right place. Gritty, sincere and (proto)proggish in a nice way I come back every now and then. The issue with this album being, besides the tracks mentioned, that the bulk of the album is alright but never truly engaging. Still, with three great tracks and wonderful musicianship (not to mention the vocals, which is very nice indeed) the album is an endearing piece of early 70's prog rock caught somewhere between Rare Bird and Santana. Not bad, just not brilliant.