PHANTASMAGORIA

Quite an experimental album. After the very good sophmore release the band seemed to be at odds with their musical direction. So they tried different things. The first two cuts are excellent, classic prog Curved Air tunes that are always praised by fans and critics (the violin solo on Melinda is simply gorgeous, while Marie Antoninette is their best known song). From then on things are not so nice. Not quite the same starts the experimentation with xyophones and brass, quite daring and interesting, although a bit away from the band´s style. The title track is humorous and interesing, with some good violin work by Way. Cheetah is an instrunetal work that does not really goes anywhere, a bit pointless. Ultra Vivaldi is a quite self indulgent piece of eletronic music played at high speed, a throwaway track. The same goes to Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway? Another experiment, this time with Sonja Kristina´s voice.

Over and Above brings back some coherence and also some strong brass arrangements that work well, although this song too is a bit different from what you might expect from a band like Curved Air. The last track, as the title indicates (Once A Ghost, Always A Ghost) is very whimisical and interesting, quite funny and a good closer for such off the wall (at the time) album. Too bad that the production was so poor. For a daring album like this they really needed somenone who really understood their sound. The cover is very nice and imaginative, probably their best.

Conclusion: with many ups and downs, this an album that shows the band at a turbulent time (the last studio efford with the classic line up). However, the good songs are very strong and the musicanship of all players is awesome. My rating sits somewhere between 3,5 and 4 stars.