PRAISE THE LOAD

Praise the Load & pass on the CD. Unless you're head over heels in love with the B3 & vintage synths, this will be no more than a pleasant experience at best. Fandango, starts off the album in a decent manner, but it quickly becomes a case of where did I hear this before ? Flyaway slows things down ,with a rather formulaic prog melody, with a mid-piece that reminded me of a very bad Klaatu outtake. we will flyaway, indeed, if only they'd found a way to make this song rise above mediocrity. As they repeat the chorus ad nauseum, I would be driven crazy if not for the magic of remote controls. Brandenburg # 3 is, as can be expected a version of a Bach tune. ELP made a career out this, and more than one ELP wannabe built overly long careers re-interpreting classical music. The better ones, though , know that they have to bring something new to the table. Otherwise, why not just listen to the London Philharmonic or Glenn Gould play the stuff ? Dave's A Song starts off with a 60s type of organ riff that morphs into an electric piano jam with just bass & drums as backing. At the 4 minutes mark, I thought it was going to turn into an early Kansas riff due to the keyboard sound, but that didn't last. It goes back to a generic jam that most semi-advanced garage bands could pull off. Even the ending guitar solo is nothing to write home about. some nice noodling. The Betrayal - continues the lack of originality and lack of interesting music. Songs like these must be what anti proggers would use to illustrate this genre's reliance on a set of formulaic chord changes & vocals. Plus lyrics that would get a C in grade 9 poetry classes ! And then, we come to another classical music remake. Did I say that some groups really don't help themselves by pulling this schtick ? At one point, I thought that I was back in the 70s at our local skating rink , and that they were about to play Herb Alpert lonely Bull . We now get to the bonus tracks. Sit Down stands out only for words that recall a bit ( a very little bit) of Kevin Gilbert's lyrical bent on Shaming of the True (vis a vis the music industry) She calls my name - My God, is it followed by the words please please stop playing !

This is really not a treasure, and the only value, would be as a collectible. I would hazard a guess that the rarity of the LP is owed mostly to the fact that most of the buyers didn't bother to keep it around, and it probably found its' way to the curb for garbage pickup in the few neighbourhoods where someone had it. One of those albums where you just wonder ...