THE WINDS OF CHANGE

JUMP belong to the second movement of British bands evolving in late-80's/early-90's (see Jadis) trying to keep the progressive rock spirit alive.Some of them did it quite well,but some of them captured the early neo prog sound to just make it even more accesible.

Unfortunately JUMP belong to this second category,at least on their early efforts and the result is just standard plain melodic rock with AOR elements and only a few progressive twists."The Winds of Change" is full of cliche melodies and song structures with little inspiration and the only thing to remind that this is a prog-related band is some good synth passages,some scarce emotive solos and the Fish-sound-alike attempts of the singer on the first few tracks.The melodies are not that memorable,not to say some funky/bluesy tracks or a couple of ballads are totally out of place.On the other hand,the production is clear and the singer is definitely among the best on the neo prog league.

I wouldn't recommend this album to a demanding proghead at all,actually "The Winds of Change" heads only for Neo Prog completionists,who will propably find some stuff to like in here...2 stars.

'When you've made all the moves that you plan to make; when you've broken all the hearts that you plan to break, you will be queen.'

The Winds Of Change was Jump's debut album. While at least some of the seeds of their future greatness were already showing here, it must be said that the band's trademark sound was not yet fully developed at this point. They already had energy, passion, and talent, but it is partly wasted here on a set of mostly rather straightforward rockers and a couple of ballads with little or no sense of genuine adventurousness. The progressive side of the band that would become obvious on at least some parts of the band's next album, World Of Wonder, and then come to full fruition on ...And All The King's Men, was still just in the developing stages at this point. Also, the acoustic side of the band shines with its absence here except on The Freedom Train which could be seen as the unofficial follow-up to Cat Stevens' Peace Train! Otherwise the sound of this album is dominated by lead vocals, dual electric guitars, keyboards, bass, and drums. The keyboards play a mainly supporting role except on a few tracks like the synth-driven Johnny And The Lightning and the piano-driven ballad A New World. The latter has good verses but a less-than-good chorus reminding of AOR bands like Journey. The Folk (Rock) influences that would characterise the best handful of tracks on World Of Wonder and many songs on future albums were almost wholly absent on this album.

The Winds Of Change is perhaps a more 'consistent' album than World Of Wonder in that it lacks both the highs and the lows of that subsequent album. There is nothing embarrassing or offensive on this album, but there is also little to get really excited about. Virtually all of the tracks fall within the rather narrow range between decent and good, never dropping below decent, but rarely reaching above merely good. The best songs include the hard rocking opener The Lightbox, the Pendragon-like A Picture Of Gold, and my personal favourite on this album You Will Be Queen. The least interesting songs are little more than average Rock 'N' Roll numbers. As a fan, I still find myself enjoying this album. Jump is a great band, but their potential was not fully developed at this point. They would do much better later on. The Winds Of Change remains one of their least interesting albums.

I hesitated between two and three stars, but settled for three stars in the end. It is a good, though far from essential album.