GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER

When I bought this album back in 1971 I had no idea what to expect. It had been a few years since The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and -- it being the 60s's -- rumors were that Arthur Brown had indulged a bit too much in the psychedelics and had been relaxing in a mental institution during that time. Upon setting needle in the groove and hearing the first moments of Galactic Zoo Dossier, I was wondering if the rumors weren't in fact true. And then, the initial groove of Internal Messenger arrived and I realized I was once again in the presence of a master vocalist, who had once again assembled a first-rate band.

There's a bit of everything on this one: pile-driving rock (Internal Messenger), pure organ-driven prog (Creation/Gypsy Escape), general weirdness (Metal Monster, Night of the Pigs), and more standard majestic rock fare (Sunrise, with Andy Dalby's beautiful guitar work).

What's harder to describe is the magic contained in all the segues between the songs, the strange little blips and bleatings emitting from the VCS synths, and the lyrics that are sometimes stunningly erudite for what was essentially a rock band with prog leanings.

Or to put it another way:

This is Thick As A Brick (pan to shot of album cover of TAAB).... pause... This is Thick As A Brick on drugs (pan to shot of album cover of Galactic Zoo Dossier)....

This is one of my all-time favorites. It literally does rank with Close To The Edge, TAAB, whatever KC album you can name, etc. Maybe not for every listener, but to this day I've never heard a better album. I can't give it anything less than a 5.