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Flaming Youth - Ark 2 CD (album) cover

ARK 2

Flaming Youth

 

Proto-Prog

2.60 | 28 ratings

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Tarcisio Moura
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Let me start confessing that Iīm really a Genesis fan and, being quite curious about one of my favorite bands, it is natural that Iīm used to dig a lot of things Genesis related. Steve Hackett pre-Gnesis band, Quiet World, was the first. Now comes this one. I have always heard about Flaming Youth, but I didnīt know until a few days ago that they had released a complete album at the time Collins was laying drums with them. And when I put Ark 2 on, I was even more amazed. itīs a conceptual album about traveling into space (a very common theme at the time). Considering Collins love for Motown and R&B I was expecting something in that vein. I could not be more wrong about that.

Ark 2 is a strange mix of british late 60īs psychedelia, pop and tunes that sound like a musical soundtrack from that period. In fact, I think it would have worked much better if indeed there was a musical play to go along with those songs. Without it, it simply sounds pretensions, pompous and silly. Compared to it, the Moody Blues seem to be avant guard. Ok, the vocal harmonies are interesting and somewhat original, the playing is professional and sometimes you can find a good "song" around (Space Child is a good example). But overall the feeling is that of a band playing backing songs in a flower power theater play, or movie. And despite all advertising efforts (even a couple of videos were made and can be found on the youtube), itīs easy to see why it failed commercially. In 1969 you could find much better, stronger and more progressive works like this in spades.

More a curio than anything else, I found it only interesting in a historical way. It dated badly and itīs good proof that good playing and good singing was not enough to grant a good work in the end. However, I donīt want to sound too harsh about it. It simply did not move me, but if you like the aforementioned styles, then you should give it a try.

Rating: 2 stars

Tarcisio Moura | 2/5 |

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