SONGS FROM PENNSYLVANIA

This so far latest release by British Ezra is mentioned hidden gem of neo prog for a long time now. I already knew the band from their debut Shapes and believed they were good enough to go for this one as well. But a hidden gem, hmm....

I already believed Shapes was touching the boundries of prog but these Songs from Pennssylvania is probably an even better exapmle of that. I don't want to go that far to say Ezra is one of those bands that give neo prog a bad name but they can't be called a high flyer either I'm afraid. Or like our prog reviewer Southsideofthesky already stated: A little bit more ? No thanks. He was referring to the opening song which is hardly more than plain pop to be fair. But on the other hand the successor Everyday is much much better all over sudden. Third tune Summer Again is a nice ballad but not much prog to be discovered here either. A good guitar solo towards the end provides the fun on this one. Underground delivers in the atmosphere department, it's a merry tune but again the prog is missing here especially in the first half of the song. 5th track Chances works much better in that sense. It's by far the longest track, almost an epic, and it recalls Floyd in their heyday with the opening tones. This mood is kept for the larger part of the song, one of the best of this album. 6th song Lazy returns to the easy listening style earlier on making it almost impossible for the album to reach the excellent status with just one song to go. Only if that one (Alive) would have been masterpiece material it might have been possible but alas, it's just average so:

The conclusion will have to be: a versatile album with strong leanings to crossover prog. There is also neo prog to be found (Everyday f.i.) and as a fan of that subgenre I prefer those clearly. I can think of only one outcome and it fits our sites description perfectly: 3 stars, good but non- essential. SfP is not poor by any means but it's far from excellent (3,2*).