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Gryphon - Raindance CD (album) cover

RAINDANCE

Gryphon

 

Prog Folk

3.29 | 255 ratings

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Trotsky
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars If Gryphon's brilliant third album was a shocking grab for the prog-rock throne, Raindance was a gentle slide back down to earth. It's as if immortality was too much to handle and the core quartet, along with new bassist Malcolm Bennett were content to put out an album that was simply "good".

The stomping opener Down The Dog is widely despised among Gryphonites, but I actually found it quite funky. However, a combination of the reverrent, but unnecessary cover of The Beatles' Mother Nature's Son, the joke song Le Cambrioleur Est Dans Le Mouchoir and the sing-along Don't Say Go soon revealed that Gryphon had made the fatal decision not to take themselves too seriously!

That's not to say that there isn't a lot of quality lurking around. The atmospheric title track, entertaining clock-based instrumental Ormolu and the beautiful if slightly nonsenical Fontinental Version are among Gryphon's best tunes. And the 16-minute closer (Ein Klein) Heldenleben is the sound of Gryphon rocking out as never before.

In fact, from a progressive point of view, Raindance is clearly Gryphon's second best work. It's just that it suffers in comparison with the masterpiece that preceeded it. ... 68% on the MPV scale

Trotsky | 3/5 |

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