THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Moon Safari is a great symphonic prog band from Sweden, a land full of great prog bands. They have always impressed me for their highly melodic symphonic rock laced with extraordinaire, stunning four part vocal harmonies. Their second CD Blomljud was the top 2008 album for me. However, there was always this slight fear that their incredible sound was much the result of studio work out. I mean, could they reproduce those intricated vocal arrangements while playing their instruments in front of an audience? Their music is not exactly the most complex in the prog world, and yet it is hard enough for most average musicians. Well, I´m glad to say they answered that question with their first live album.

The Gettysburg Address was recorded during their perfomance on the Rosfest and it is a testomony of their terrific talent, criativity and tastefulness. While their most recent studio album (Lover´s End of 2010) showed they might be concentrating more on their vocal parts than on the instrumental passages, this double CD clearly indicates they are, in fact, an excellent band on its own and capable of very fine vocal-less music. In fact they started the show with an eleven minute instrumental called Moonwalk (a clever collage of several themes from the group). Not bad at all! The keyboards parts are specially inspired, with lots of vintage timbres, as well as several electric guitar lines. They are better musicians than I initially thought they were. And yes, they can reproduce their incredible vocal parts live. They were in fine form that night, perfoming their longest (and best) epics like A Kid Called Panic and Yagur´s Farm. But the highlight of the evening (and the CD´s) was when they finished their set playing the whole 30+ minute suite The Other Half Of The Sky (clearly a prog classic of the new millenium).

Sometimes is hard to believe this a live recording, for everything works right on: the perfomance is impeccable, the sound crystal clear (you can hear every single instrument) and the production is spotless. The kind of live album one band must be proud of. It´s almost 100 minutes of music in total, but it feels like it is much shorter than that. Most of the tracks prove to be as relevant live as it is on the studio and in some cases, like New York City Summergirl, sound better here than on the original version. There is no real lows on this CD: you can hear it form start to finish without skipping single track.

Ok, they might sound too melodic and too "happy", even tacky, for some radicals, but, boy, do they remind me of a time when prog music was also very pleasant to the ears!

I just love this album! Five stars for a five star perfomance of great stuff! Simply essential for any prog lover who also likes fine, melodic songs.