SAGA

This is the first album by Saga. 1978 is not a very good year for the progressive rock. Nevertheless, Saga starts here a brilliant progressive career: they show the way that leads to an avant-garde progressive rock full of modern keyboards. "How long" was their hit by excellence. Saga's style here consists in very structured and melodic arrangements made of delightful modern keyboards and rather hard rock electric guitars. There are omnipresent melodic mini moog in the foreground. With 2-3 keyboardists in the band, one has to have great expectations, and actually the listener should not be disappointed regarding the keyboards refinement and pertinence. Saga however do not entirely attain their typical modern and crystal clear sound here: I would say it is done at 90%. There are many very good guitar solos, synchronized to follow the melodic keyboards. The keyboards are sometimes anthemic. The lead singer has an excellent voice a bit like the Spandau Ballet's singer. There are still here some more vintage keyboards, like electric piano and mini moog, but there are no organ nor mellotron; anyway the overall sound is very modern for the year, so that the electric piano parts do not sound outdated at all. All the tracks are excellent. Saga has their own unique sound & style: they probably inspired neo prog bands like Pallas.

Rating: 4.5 stars