OF QUEUES AND CURES

After hearing National Health's debut I still didn't count the band into my top three Canterbury-list and I still don't count Camel as a Canterbury-scene band. Well, after hearing "Of Queues and Cures" Soft Machine fell out of there. I still think that Caravan and Gilgamesh are in their own class, if only National Health's debut would have been better, then maybe.. The album is very serious in a way but still it contains the witty humour of Canterbury. It's also more solid than the debut and contains some excellent mini-moog passages. The epic two-part "The Bryden 2 Step (For Amphibians)" is the band's best effort ever and really one of my favourite pieces that the Canterbury-Scene has to offer. The problem (if there is one) is that sometimes the songs tend to repeat themselves too much and the fact that this album was suggested for me and after glorious reviewes my hopes were a bit too high.

Still a solid 4 stars.