BURSTING AT THE SEAMS

The follow-up to "Grave New World" is a near masterpiece, but doesn't bring the innovation of "Grave New World" so I cannot call it as such. Every track on here is great, if not an amazing achievement in prog music. To top it all off, we are introduced to this absolutely incredible guitarist from out of nowhere, everyone welcome...DAVE LAMBERT!!! The best lead guitarist the band could ever have, and one of my all time favorite players. Dave brings with him a true masterpiece, "The Winter and the Summer", and you just pray he sticks around for some more albums (which he does, ofcourse!). So, "Bursting at the Seams" is not really a grande concept, but a bunch of individual tracks each amazing and inventive and highly enjoyable. Stand-outs include "The River / Down by the Sea", "Part of the Union" (which was a pretty popular bar song for a while and is catchy as all hell), "The Winter and the Summer" and "Lay Down". These are my favorites, and if I had to pick one it would definitely be "The River / Down by the Sea". the way you are introduced to Dave Lambert on this track is unbeliveable, his vocals AND guitar playing are both equally brilliant.

Strawbs really have their line-up here, a classic line-up that to this day still plays together live for electric shows (and I might add, still sound just as good if not better than they did!). It is bittersweet for me, loving Tony Hooper so much and I miss hearing his voice with the Strawbs, but Lambert is a worthy replacement and brings the Strawbs to that new prog era with full force.

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