PRE-FLIGHT

Room was another one of those short-lived progressive rock bands from the seventies, with their album, Pre-Flight, being the only thing they left us. Looking at the generally positive reviews, along with how the personnel looked as if there was essentially an orchestra playing on this album, I had high expectations. What I received, however, was between a mediocre and simply good album. While this didn't reach my expectations, it still had some charm within it. The players on this album have a very strong sense of musicianship, and they manage to mix heavy blues and symphonic/progressive rock elements in a one-of- a-kind way. The main negative elements come when listening to the actual music, as it isn't bad, but it's also not that good. It lacks true originality at points and get quite bland in some of the tracks. For example, some of the music leans a lot more toward the blues aspects, and while I still like the genre, it's just kind of lackluster when played out compared to the parts of the album.

Moving on to the music, I liked the opening title track, which is a nearly nine-minute-long suite, with the orchestral and dramatic vibes mixing in exceptionally well with heavy prog, creating a solidly great song of ever-changing rhythms and evolving structures that turn and twist into this sort of "hype song" so to speak, as to what I thought would be on the rest of the album. Cemetery Junction also has a very similar thing going on, this time with a bigger focus on the symphonic side. Like I mentioned up above in the first paragraph, the album finds difficulty finding a true direction and sort of slithers in between Jefferson Airplane formulas and a sound that was similar to what Chicago was doing at the time. Where Did I Go Wrong is a bit of a drop-off, being mostly bland and nothing really interesting happening. The same goes for the shortest song on the record, Big John Blues. The rest of the songs bring their own quirky twists and are all around good songs. Some of my favorites include the jazz-rock leanings of No Warmth In My Life and the poetic lyrics of War. However, these are all just good songs, and the title track and Cemetery Junction are the only numbers I would truly consider to be great songs.

In conclusion, it's an alright record that could use some improvement. The title track is a real gem and worth checking out, but the whole album is far from being essential. I will admit, I really enjoyed some of the musicianship on this thing, so that brings my rating up. Overall I would argue a 3/5 is most fitting for this record.

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