LADY LAKE

And yet another hidden gem of the 70's prog among the top eclectic prog albums. Maybe this is the genre that gives the most credit to unknown bands to the mainstream public (mainstream progressive rock public, in this case), besides, maybe, zeuhl and the avant-garde sessions, but that is another story. The fact is that there are many albums among the top 20 that are not by the genre's big bands (King Crimson, Gentle Giant, VDGG and Peter Hammill) and this album is one perfect example of that because this band is, to this day, pretty underground.

Gnidrolog's Lady Lake was released in the same year as their debut and, no matter how good or bad their debut was, this album is a solid release and sadly remained underground for many years until the prog's resurgence in the early 90's. The probable reason for they being so unknown is probably because in 72 many important and influent albums from important and influent bands were released, like Thick as a Brick, Foxtrot, Close to the Edge and Octopus.

Their music fits quite well in the genre also because, though not being very experimental, at least for prog standards, their incredible mixture of woodwinds, saxes, guitar, bass and the bow string instruments is very good: there is no leading instrument because they keep questioning and answering each other or each takes the lead in one part. the only constant instruments are the drums and the bass, who create a great atmosphere. The only problem here are the vocals. Though the singer sings in tune and does his job well, his timbre is quite obnoxious and the vibrato don't help a bit.

The songs, in general, are very good, but there are two songs that definitely stand out. The opening song of side 1, I Could Never be a Soldier, and the opening song of side 2, Lady Lake, have some great moments, but overall they are very good. However, the album is not very constant and the remaining songs of each side is unable to maintain the same quality as its opening track. In fact, the album, unfortunately, cannot follow up the song I Could Never be a Soldier and the quality drops considerably after it. In my opinion, if the band could make the whole album as good as its opening song the album would have been a masterpiece.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Another great hidden gem of the 70's. Lady Lake is a very good album and deserves to be rated accordingly. It is just a shame that the band disbanded the following year because they had an enormous potential. The problem probably was that they were yet another good progressive rock band from the 70's, what, back then, was nothing special. 4 stars then.

Share this GNIDROLOG review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to CCVP
• Report this review (#186633)
• Buy GNIDROLOG music online with PA partners
• Show all GNIDROLOG MP3/Stream
• Go to GNIDROLOG page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Lady Lake page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for GNIDROLOG related discussions