CROSSINGS

The reason I love Dün's Eros is that despite their avant garde approach (usually not quite my thing) they still played real music between the lines so to speak. And this is the same with Herbie Hancocks master piece actually. I mean, if avant garde leads to nonsense even I could play then I loose interest but when it's done with wonderfully created and executed melodies it's a whole different ball game.

The epical Sleeping Giant is a great example of what I mean. A great combination of inaccessible experimental music and real music (like the key part halfway). And when avant music is done like this I can really admire it and swallow the tough parts without problems. Masterpiece track indeed this Sleeping Giant. But same as Yes' Close to the Edge and (better example) Relayer the masterpiece status unfortunately had to be destroyed by the other two tracks, in this case Quasar and Water Torture.

No problem for the avant garde lovers, they probably digest these two tracks with huge appetite but (and I have no problem admitting this) these are not for me. And in the end they leave me with a pretty big problem for the ultimate album rating. For my personal taste it will go no higher than three stars I'm afraid (3,5 at best) but this is one of those albums you simply can't ignore and I feel I will have to take into account the significance for jazz, fusion and prog as well and then this is a true masterpiece. But I can't go as far as 5 stars so it will have to be right in between meaning four * ultimately.