THIS IS ... GRACIOUS !!

Strangely, This is ...Gracious!!, Gracious' sophomore and final album of the seventies until partially reuniting in nineties, leaves me even colder than their scattershot debut album. At least with their first album Gracious!, you never knew what direction the band was going to veer off to. Not so with This is...Gracious!! The band have become more focused and have concentrated on structured songs that again lean heavily on prog influences of the era such as Floydian guitars and more prominent use of Mellotron. But for me, it just doesn't work. Gracious had taken a path more closely emulating their heroes King Crimson (in place of the Moody Blues influence found on the band's debut album) on many of the album's closing tracks, but lead vocalist Paul Davis' roughly Ozzy like voice, while unique for prog, doesn't gel with the faux Beach Boys harmonies of the other band members.

There's few surprise turns on This Is...Gracious!!, and the band just lack that certain magic, be it pretension, high drama, camp, kitsch, bombast or whatever that helps to send prog into the realm of greatness. To their credit, it was not from a lack of talent or from trying. Similar to a band like Spring, they will always remain a seventies' prog footnote with a dedicated cult following.