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Wishbone Ash - Pilgrimage CD (album) cover

PILGRIMAGE

Wishbone Ash

 

Prog Related

3.62 | 317 ratings

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octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
4 stars Pilgrimage has been my first WA vinyl. I remember that my attention was caught by the sleeve design and how somrtimes happened in the vinyl days, it was enough to buy the album without knowing anything of what I would have found inside.

"Vas Dis" was unexpected. Very jazzy, with a strange signature and that choir at the unison with the guitars. The term "acid jazz" was not invented yet, I think, but this is how I would call this song that was actually different from everything I had listened before. I was immediately captured by this band even if I don't think that they have ever made anything similar to this.

"The Pilgrim" was another surprise. After the jazzy and uptime start a repetitive and calm piece of guitars and bass, without any drum. A dreamy environment that I compared to the Pink Floyd of the Meddle period, but interrupted by the coming of the guitars. What comes is a prog-rock instrumental made of an unusual signature on which one of th guitars and the bass provide the soundscape for the solo guitar while the drums make the dirty work. The choir is jazzy again.It's a pity that the band hasn't continued with this kind of things in the following albums. There's also time for a psychedelic interlude before the coda.

Time to rock and roll now. "Jail Bait" will become one of the most famous song of the band, with a lot of live and alternate studio versions, but is just a rock-blues son of its times.

The Side A is closed by "Alone", another short guitar based instrumental. Nice but short. It could have been exploited more. I think of it as of an incomplete thing and its fading out confirm s this impression.

"Lullaby" is short as well. But the B side opener is very good and its duration is the right one. It makes me think to the Caravan even if one of the two guitars sometimes (Something) sounds Beatlesian. Now my favorite track and still one of the Wishbone Ash songs that I like more. "Valediction" is a good reason to have this album. The song is divided in two. The first half has a choir which gives it a sort of weird "church" feeling and after the guitar solo in the middle it becomes unexpectedly "reggae". After a song like this the live closer is superfluous. Just a long rock-blues session.

But enough to rate this album with 4 stars

octopus-4 | 4/5 |

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