THE MIDDLE EARTH ALBUM

Another five GH CD's arrive at Chez Barnett (to complete the set of GH Studio recordings).This is the first to get the old lughole treatment (Lend an ear to). The first 7 tracks are all Medieval /Folksy efforts and I'm sort of positive that these tracks can be covered by the title of prog/quirky as they are supposed to be live renditions in a Middle-Earth tavern (like the Prancing Pony at Bree). These tracks don't do it for me and I'm thinking that this is a completionist CD and destined for a ONE STAR! But then starting with track 8 and through track 13, it's suddenly GH and their usual fayre of keyboard oriented Symphonic prog rock. The delightful of female vocals of Bogdanowicz are used and suddenly you can add on another STAR. You get back to nice keyboard and synth work and you add another STAR. This is still their worst effort I've listened to so far but it has five nice tracks to save it from the one star bargain bin, but not enough class to take this beyond 3.2. Probably leave this CD till last, unless you like medieval sounding ballads. Not for the symphonic prog rock purists, but I'll give it 3.2 Rounded down to 3 stars.