SPRING

4,5 stars for this very enjoyable album! Why they didn't do anything else? Indeed, what ever happened to them (except the drummer went years later to Dire Straits)?? Mellotron- lovers, get this at once. The sound is simply lovely: not the dark nightmare world of Crimso's starless court or whatever Mellotron brings to your mind at first. SPRING is poppy in a very good sense. Slightly light and song-oriented but still vintage prog. It gives me an amazingly pleasurable warm feeling to listen to these songs. And Pat Moran's vocals are a perfect pair to the Mellotron-driven sound: emotional and a bit wailing, like 'crooners' of 50's and 60's but not overblown or too sentimental. I tried to think of a similar voice but didn't come closer than Cat Stevens who's not exactly what I was searching for.

Each song is a highlight of its own - except perhaps one or two (and bonus tracks didn't impress me either) and that's why I take half a star from the full five that the pleasure of SPRING is really worth of.