SONG OF SEVEN

Some progheads willing to pursue a solo career with an ambitious albums or projects in the vein of their original bands to express their full potentials outside their original bands. A good example of this is Rick Wakeman with all of his early albums which were all in the stream of progressive music, exploring his full talents in albums like "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" or "The Myths and Legends of King Arthur" and the magical "Journey To The Center of The Earth". Another good example is probably Steve Hackett of Genesis who explored his full potentials to masterpiece albums like "Spectral Morning" or "To Watch The Storm" which stil have some bit elements of early Genesis.

But other progheads wanted to have a solo career or form a project to move away from the complexities of prog rock. A good example is John Wetton (King Crimson), Carl Palmer (ELP), Steve Howe (Yes) and Geoffrey Downes (Yes) who formed ASIA as to crystallize their pop souls into music. The result was a hard rock and pop rock album. Another example is actually Jon Anderson, with the exception of his debut album "Olias of Sunhillow" which has intense prog elements. But from the second album "Song of 7" onwards he has never played prog any longer. Or, I could say that his music style is somewhat like ABWH, or Yes under Trevor Rabin era, especially "90125" and "Big Generator". So is the case with this "Song of Seven" album - it's basically more on pop outfit instead of prog exploration. However, it still has some (very little, actually) prog elements especially with the presence of John Giblin's bass playing.

Most compositions presented here are quite straight-forward in structure with less melodic or less catchy notes in singing line. Almost all songs do not have any particular catchy melody throughout the song. However, the composition is quite okay sepecially on some tracks that explore obvious bass playing by John Giblin, e.g. "Take Your Time" which to me has interesting bass lines throughout the song. "Days" is also a nice mellow track while the album title track "Song Of Seven" is probably the only track that has quite obvious prog elements especially on its structure and nuance - through the use of acoustic guitar. "Some Are Born" is also a good track that you might have been familiar in terms of style in Trevor Rabin's era of Yes.

Overall, I consider this album is a good one regardless it's being prog or not. If this is categorized as pop song, I could not deny it. One thing for sure, this album might attract those who have not known prog music. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

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