GREENSLADE

It's hard to believe its taken me this many decades to get around to listening to Greenslade. Somehow, even though I grew up in the late 70s as a huge fan of English prog rock, I never got turned on to Greenslade. It's a shame, because I missed out on many years of listening to this fantastic music. The musicianship is stellar. So good that if you told me it had members of Yes playing on it, I would believe you. The drums and bass especially. If you love Chris Squier's bass-playing and/or Bill Bruford's drumming, this album is made for you! There are long, beautiful, instrumental sections that would fit almost perfectly onto "The Yes Album" of "Fish Out Of Water". Extremely tight, muscular and expansive. The way i like my symphnic prog.

Once again, though, the vocals are the weak point. This is a recurring problem in prog. Tons of exceptionally talented musicians, but not enough great singers to go around. The vocalist here, Dave Lawson, is not terrible by any means. At times, he's quite good, but at other times his overdramatic style of singing sounds almost comical. He's got good pipes, but his delivery is just too over-the-top a lot of the time.

I think the incredible musicianship and the gorgeous, intricate compositions more than make up for the weak vocals. Highly recommended to fans of Yes, Gentle Giant, early King Crimson, Gabriel-era Genesis, etc.