HAMBURGER CONCERTO

Focus

Symphonic Prog

4.25 | 1143 ratings

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Seyo
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator

Hamburger Concerto is the peak of FOCUS' career and one of the best examples of what progressive rock really is, in its most narrow meaning.

From the acoustic, Rennaissance-tinged Delitae Musicae, through the reprise of the main melody theme of Early Birth, this album presents a sincere and creative musical performance that is rarely matched during the era. It is perfectly cohesive effort with musical passages flowing easily from one part to another. It is not easy to make a 45 minutes of largely instrumental music without forcing a listener to skip certain parts or to go away for a cup of coffee while waiting for interesting moments to come. And that is what frequently happenned to many (prog) rock artists who lost compass and ideas about where to go.

FOCUS recorded a wonderful album that mixes classical symphonic, jazz and rock elements in such a way that many overrated bands like ELP or even YES in some parts of their career had difficulty to accomplish. There is a lot of symphonic- like movements and changes of tempo and mood. Loads of keyboards (organ, piano, mellotron, harpsichord, synths), flute, lead guitars and more than a competent new rhythm section are played and produced in a magnificent way.

The only minor critique from my side would go to Harem Scarem, because it was obviously made to sound like a continuation of extremely popular Hocus Pocus from Moving Waves album, this time with powerful piano riff. Add to this unoriginality an extremely unnecessary yea, yea, yea... vocals and you get the weakest moment of the album. Even as such, it is by no means a bad song - it is just unappropriate. Still, it cannot spoil the overall quality of this prog masterpiece!

PERSONAL RATING: 4,5/5

P.A. RATING: 5/5

Seyo | 5/5 | 2008-3-10

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