REAL TO REEL

I picked this one out of a used bin more than ten years ago for a buck and a half. Owning several of Starcastle's earlier albums and liking what I heard I thought I'd grab this pristine used copy for the cost of a beer. The album cover should have warned me about what to expect.

Obviously some junior executive at HitsRus decided the band needed a retooling and did to them musically and artistically what a veterenarian with hedge shears might do to an unsuspecting poodle. I could go back into the vaults and dig this dusty bit of since untouched vinyl out to listen so I could write a proper review but I remember it well enough so many years later to know it would only piss me off.

This band, even if they were obviously influenced by YES, had real talent both as composers and musicians. Real to Reel is absolutely retched from the cover art (which is both laughable and just plain stupid) to the music which is beyond being "watered down" to the point of being directionless, without conviction and shamefully lame. The recording suit that shoved this one down the group's throat and up the fan's ass should be burned at the stake as a sort of entertainmening compensation to everyone involved.