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Fireballet - Two, too... CD (album) cover

TWO, TOO...

Fireballet

Symphonic Prog


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eanmund44@mai
2 stars After the very good debut album "Night on Bald Mountain", the group changed directions (for the worse). They moved away from progressive rock and steered towards a sort of Broadway musical approach. Though there are prog areas on the album, the group meanaders around with goofy singing parts, odd string sections, and pop melodies (most namely the song Desiree). Most of the Genesis influences present on the first album are gone here. There are some decent parts on this album, but I think most listeners will find themselves skipping over parts.

The first album offered so much promise. It's hard to understand why they changed directions with their music. Rather disappointing.

Report this review (#19192)
Posted Friday, January 21, 2005 | Review Permalink
ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars My enthusiasm for this US band was so communicative in those remote days that one of my best friend decided to buy "Two, Too" after having listened to their first album at my home. Logically, I went to his place and I discovered their second record.

What a disappointment ! None of the great moments of "Night On A Bald Mountain" are available here, unfortunately. Forget about prog music. Just the same masquerade as you can see on the cover ! Very poor indeed !

I was rather lucky to have purchased their first effort while my friend Bruno did buy this one...

The remastered version of "Bald..." also features the whole of this "Two, tooo" album. This might be the only reason for you to get in touch with these songs... Two stars.

Report this review (#132063)
Posted Monday, August 6, 2007 | Review Permalink
b_olariu
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars After a succesfull first album, not necesarly in sells terms but more in musical terms, the second Fireballet album entitled Two, too from 1976 is a bit of let down. They changend their symphonic prog aproach to a more mainstream , I don't know how to call it, Hollywoodian cabaret, if exist such thing, sometimes I have the impression I've listen to some Broadway story with Fred Astaire on leading role here. They almost drop that good prog elements from the first album and turned them here a more accesible way, but, there is a but, some pieces are really god, at least for me: the opening track Great expectations with a Styx feel to it , It's about time, Carrolon are good symphonic pieces, instrumental speaking, because the voice and the vocal parts are awful. A not so bad album after all, not a special one either, some moments are good with great mellotron and guitar arrangements, but the voice ruins everything. So, a 2.5 stars for this second album, but because the good moments are in more cantity than the bad ones, I will rounded up to 3. Less good than the first one, but not so bad Like many considered this album to be. My CD version is from Passport records, beside the first album from this CD, on this version remastered, the second album is all here as bonus, featuring 7 tracks, more like two in one.
Report this review (#208968)
Posted Friday, March 27, 2009 | Review Permalink
Tarcisio Moura
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Well, this one´s quite different from their debut Night On A Bald Mountain. The cover is simply hideous and it certainly a not good invitation to see what´s inside the album. But the content is not that bad. There are some good parts that remind their early Yes influences, but I´m not really sure what they wanted with Two, too...most of the time their music is like a soundtrack of a Broadway musical or something like that. In some parts they seem to be emulating Styx around the time (the opener Great Expectations is a good exemple). Sometimes they go prog mix with jazz and cabaret music (Chinatown Boulevard). Other tracks have a Kansas feel on it on the instrumental parts while the vocals keep a strange jazzy twist. And so on...

While their musicanship remains as strong as ever, Two, too... is a kind of transitional album, very experimental and not altogether a successful one, even if it does have its good moments. Maybe they would eventually find an interesting very own sound if they had the chance to go on. since this one was their last, we´ll probably never know what they were aiming at (if they were aiming at something at all). The result is interesting but very far away from the music they played on their debut. Be warned. My rating: something between 2 and 2,5 stars.

Report this review (#210904)
Posted Friday, April 10, 2009 | Review Permalink
4 stars First album had a lot of songs that sound like Genesis and Yes. Progressive rock fans nod happily in recognition. "Wow, Atmospheres sounds like something off Selling England By The Pound! It's not fantastic or even good really, but hey, it sounds like Genesis, and I LOVE Genesis!!". Not to mention the title track, filling that infamous role of obligatory hokey pablum Classical adaptation. No wonder prog fans ate it up by the droves - it was cack, but caressed lovingly the seemingly gilded testes of their idols. To anyone else it's yet another pat, dated artifact from the dark age of rock music. (And that's not a knock on Genesis, King Crimson or Yes... just the odd handfuls of draconian, vacant-headed collegiate admirers they were unfortunate enough to possess).

Two, Too... on the other hand is utterly bonkers by comparison. Not that it stands outside of tradition - parallels can be drawn to the Zeuhl panoply, Zappa, The Residents, Return To Forever and their ilk. The more demented groups. You might even want to draw comparisons to non-prog or even contemporary glam rockers that contributed to the eventual inauguration of new wave or punk; Sparks, Be Bop Deluxe, The Tubes, 10cc / Godley and Creme... That might be what the guy below was thinking of when he suggested that this record sounds like "some Broadway story with Fred Astaire on leading role"! I pity prog fans sometimes. Anything with the barest whiff of pop smarts gets derided as "fake prog" and "mainstream". For what it's worth I think pop often leaves less room for coloring outside the lines... the worst pop conforms stringently to these limitations, while the worst prog ignores them and normally falls flat-faced into its own icy cold stew of unchecked prevarications. For my money this record (as with most great creative pop/rock-oriented music) strikes a finely tuned balance between these ill-advised extremes.

This record thankfully got its due in 1997 when Terry Sharkie namechecked it in his Zolo Synthesis discography. (You should be able to find it on Google, with any luck.)

Report this review (#295828)
Posted Sunday, August 22, 2010 | Review Permalink

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