SPRING

I'm a bit surprised by two things about this entry in PA = the Eclectic prog tag, as this record is far more pure progressive than a lot of other "progressive rock" tagged records, and the quite low rate of it. Of course it's a matter of taste, but listening to "Golden Fleece" or "Gazing" (for example) is for me pure gold, pure Mellotron and emotion based music.

Because of some lower quality songs, I can't rate Spring like the ***** England / A garden shed album for example (which is for me the typical lost progressive gem, although not that lost finally). Spring reminds me England because of the vocals with the same kind of real emotion in it. Love it.

4 stars definitely for me !

Is it a bird - a plane? NO - It´s ............ well, kind of hard to tell.

Sometimes you just can´t find your place - no matter how hard you try, you´ll end up completely estranged and lost to the world. This sounds harsh, but in a way this perfectly sums up Springs self titled debut from the year 1971, where the hippie-dippy society drenched in peace and understanding was all but slain by the awful Altamont incident(what a brilliant idea to hire the Hells Angels as head of security, Mick Jagger), fighting in the streets and a drug consummation that was out of control.

Spring´s sound is like a hangover from the 60s - evoking thoughts of sitting around the bonfire smoking weed and playing songs you once wrote, while sitting on the can. This is a compliment btw, and one of this records biggest attributes: the songwriting is damn good. In fact, if it wasn´t for the ever present mellotrons and the small changes of pace, melody or structure, I´d think of this as a singer-song writer album...

There is however a big problem surrounding this release. At the time music was going a 1000 miles an hour in every which direction the different artists would take it. The progressive bands in particular were on the verge of climaxing in an esoteric explosive love affair, whereas the pop groups were trying to find there own sound, that preferably shouldn´t be a clear cut resurrection of what was so successful the decade before hand. Spring sounds like neither. They were too progressive for the pop audience and far too sweet and unadventurous for the prog community at the time. It is a real shame, and certainly when one thinks of the resurgence of this particular brand of music nowadays. Coheed and Cambria, Porcupine Tree, Pure Reason Revolution, The Dear Hunter and The Decemberists all dwell in between prog and pop, and as far as I can gather, they are doing pretty good -well at least compared with Spring.

If you love mellotron - and that seagull like, airy floating sound to boot, I urge you to find this long lost treasure. There are some killer guitar solos sprinkled along the album as well, with the one featured on Golden Fleece being my personal fave. The singer sounds a bit like The Verve front man Richard Ashcroft, with that sensuous vibrato effect attached to it, and together with the softness of the mellotron and the whole Moody Blues marinade these guys had been lurking in - things get interesting and quite different from the usual tenors in these kinds of bands, that usually sound like they live off mayonnaise and margarine.

Stand out tracks include the before mentioned Golden Fleece, Gazing and the wonderful Grail, that feature the most progressive shifts and turns this album has to offer, but it does so with grace and a thoughtfulness normally only associated with the more mellow pop artists of the time. I really love the mellotron on this track, which slightly sounds like a melodious whiff of fresh air blowing through a labyrinth - changing pitch and expression all according to the corridors.

A real bipolar treat, that never really finds its true self.

I am wondered what happened as I'm - a newbie - must be almost the first to write upon the fabulous item. Whether the mature ones from here found it too insignificant or they simply haven't heard (of) it.

Long time, long 30+ years this work was not meant to exist. The typical talk was of a one-album band and that it's a Universal grief there's no more. It makes this album a fabulous one, no doubt.

For my taste it represents a collection of well-sounding songs without any real charm. The charm haunts here and there in the fragments - sometimes it sounds much alike to the Cirkus' One, especially. Plus there's an overall minor kinda minor charm. But it's so minor comparing to the first release. And after all, finding THE SAME bonus tracks as on the previous album means to me both a commercial trick of stretching the length and a somewhat intelligent failure... It's a pretty mediocrity. I wish this album had never been recorded. As it's been RELEASED - I see the guys need money. How can anyone blame an artist for that? On the other hand it gives us an advice to not to expect the permanent greatness of the great musicians...

I had a big mistake with this album. I thought it is lack and uninteresting (including Spring's first harvest). I'd tried to "get into" it several times (5 as minimum). Only now I can say: this is masterpiece and even better than first album. This's masterpiece of early 70th progressive song-oriented music, like Cressida f. i. Not the best album of progressive or something like... All songs (all! ) are good. I like also both versions of "A Word Full of Wispers" and "Hendre Mews" (strangely enough for me :) ). If you think that I'm wrong, you're wrong :) Yu've warned! :) Seriously, don't miss this album and don't repeat my mistake.

I really have a great trouble to definate this music and this band. Music is very soft but it got its magic and charm! In the other hand I must admit, that Spring composed rather uncomplicated songs which were favoured only by using a lot of mellotron but this is unfortunatelly not enough. Second album. I will concentrate only on the tracks, which are worthy to do this. Hendre Mews - the main theme is viredly ornamented with some nice piano chords. A painted ship - track move on slowly but in the end (last minute) we've got quasi-epic Hammond's crescendo. High horse - connected with last number, syncopation sounds of percussion and Hammond, crashed in the middle by the wind (something like early Blood Sweat and Teras) with interesting piano plot. Good track. Fernley Avenue and Helping the helpless - both are typical pop songs, nothing to remember after listening. A word full of whispers - wow, it opens with the sound from the first album....but, after this we heard anotherpop song! Get my share - a'la trans ending, skimed guitar interlaced with Hammond. I give it 2,5, a little bit of sentiment.

It's hard not to feel sceptical when presented with an early-1970's prog-rock album with the tag 'Lost Classic' attached; Is it a cunning marketing ploy, a trick to boost the band's profile or is it simply bare- faced lies designed to con paying music fans out of their hard-earned cash? Whatever the reason(and this writer would like to make clear that some albums have the 'lost classic' tag for VERY GOOD Reasons), the upturn in Progressive Riock's recent fortunes have meant a clutch of forgotton bands have re-appeared, decades after they first started-out, in an attempt to revive their lost art in this new and exciting digital age. SPRING - a group who were one of the very first proper prog acts alongside KING CIMSON - released their eponymously-titled debut in 1970, to mixed reviews, before falling into the darkness of relative obscurity. Their album was a mellotron-drenched affair, maudlin and melancholy in tone, and featured a rather disturbing album cover that reminds one of the grisly Nic Roeg arthouse-horror masterpiece 'Don't Look Now' in it's depiction of a red-coat clad person(girl or boy???) lying, presumably dead, in a muddy country ditch. It's this kind of murky imagery that gave early prog it's artistic bells, but despite the striking imagery, the actual music fails to live up to the rather grandiose pretentions of the artwork. 'Spring' is all build-up and no pay-off, a selection of occasionally pretty yet dull and insipid songs, none of which manages to stand-put amongst the mubdane gloom. Not dreadful, but instantly forgettable. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2008

This seems to be a concept album or at least have a theme to it. The mellotron is featured on all but 2 of the original album's tracks. Although you won't find it on the 3 bonus songs either. 3 of the 5 members of the band play the mellotron which of course doesn't mean they had 3 mellotrons in the studio or on stage, but that does mean you will hear a lot of it that's for sure.This is a fairly mellow and melodic record with really only one track that gets me excited(Golden Fleece). To quote Andy Thompson from Planet Mellotron he says "This is a so-so album, (but a) tron classic".

"The Prisoner(Eight by Ten)" has a great intro with lots of mellotron before light drums and vocals come in. Some fuzzed out organ after a minute and before 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 minutes. "Grail" is a drifting track with the focus on the reserved vocals except for the long instrumental section 3 minutes in. "Boats" is an engaging song that features strummed guitar with vocals. "Shipwrecked Soldier" reminds me of some of the sixties protest songs. Drums and vocals lead the way. Mellotron floods after 2 1/2 minutes and before 4 minutes.

"Golden Fleece" opens with mellotron as strummed guitar, bass and drums join in. Vocals come in as we get what sounds like horns coming and going. A tasteful guitar solo 3 minutes in with an organ solo to follow. Mellotron after 4 1/2 minutes with strummed guitar joining in to end it. "Inside Out" doesn't do anything for me. It sounds like xylophone before 2 minutes. "Song To Absent Friends(The Island)" is a ballad. "Gazing" opens with drums, mellotron and organ. Vocals 1 1/2 minutes and guitar 3 minutes in. I actually really like the first 2 bonus tracks. I like when the vocalist holds a note in "Fool's Gold" and there's some nice organ work 2 1/2 minutes in with some steller guitar before 4 minutes. This is my second favourite song.

So nothing much to get too excited about really other than the excellent mellotron floods. Still I like this album as it's relaxing, melodic and enjoyable. 3.5 stars.

A very colourful Spring

Spring is one of the first prog bands I've heard, and it immidiately grabbed my ears!

For me every song on this album (including the bonus tracks because that's how I listened to the album) are magnificent!

This is one of those albums where you listen and listen and everytime what you perceive as being your favourite song changes!

From the hunting begining of the opener, "The Prisoner (Eight By Ten)", to the beautiful soft and folky "Boats", it's all so very good.

I do not agree however that this album if PACKED with mellotrons, as the guitar does seem to be the lead instrument or atleast up there with the keyboard/organ/mellotron.

One more thing I would like to mention is that I find Pat Moran's vocals to be perfectly fine and with time I have grown to love the way he expresses himself in singing, so I guess it is an acquired taste, but, once you've acquired it.... =)

Other then that I really dig the album cover and theme! it is all very beautiful and it may be a shame Spring never got to release their second album but let's be thankful for what they have released!

A definite 5!

Often revered as a classic, Spring's only contribution to recording history is a decent, generally unexciting album with some fine moments sprinkled in. The omnipresence of mellotrons is probably the most remarkable feature, and I suppose that this instrument is often used to colour the overall sound of a band, to magnify it or make it larger than life, but in the case of Spring it often seems like a concept car. Remove the hood and you find the guts are lacking. No guts no glory.

Yet this is not a bad album. Songs like "Grail" demonstrate the gentle side of mellotron strings and are quite pretty, while "Song to Absent Friends" is a very pleasant Elton John type piano ballad. "Golden Fleece" is a more upbeat piece that contrasts with the general languid nature of the album. It contains mellotron horns that have a delightfully nostalgic quality, reminding me of some genuine horns used by someone around that time, but I can't put my finger on it. But the formula wears thin on "Shipwrecked Sailor" (which nonethless contains some sumptuous guitar licks in the break) and "Inside Out", as do the archetypal religious and mythological themes. The bonus tracks mostly miss the mark, with "Fool's Gold" being an exception.

Recommended for mellotron completists, Spring is much more proto prog than prog, and one could hardly suggest that a great many influences sprung forth as a result of this effort. Yet there is a season even for well constructed music of this ilk.

I met Spring looking for mellotrons, and that's what I found, but only little more.

The album is OK, good music, good songs, but I don't find that special sense that makes music be what is in our lives. And at the end of the day, I decide to pick another album rather than try this one again.

It's like a mellow proto-prog album which I can imagine in 1966 or 1967, but in 1971 the music had gone through other ways. Maybe that forced location out of time results in a weak final concept. My highlights, Golden Fleece, Shipwrecked Soldier and Gazing, aren't all the good a highlight got to be. I don't know, when I first heard the disc, I was expecting something more that didn't come. As the days passed I expected to find it after some more spins, but again nothing arrived. So, Spring is to me just a group of nice songs that can be listened with the family.

About mellotrons, they are sounding from beginning to end (well, almost), contributing very well to the atmosphere that surrounds the album. But it's not the best example for this instrument. There are interesting works in Grail and Golden Fleece but, again, something is missing. Any way, if you are a fan of the mellotron, you should check this one out.