Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Beggars Opera - Act One CD (album) cover

ACT ONE

Beggars Opera

 

Symphonic Prog

3.67 | 250 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
3 stars 3.5 stars really!!! This debut album is a better example of what is called proto-prog but its main flaw is also to be one of the earliest examples of derivative albums of better known groups. When putting an ear on this vintl , on e cannot help to think of two groups : The Nice and Deep Purple Mk I. This is not to say that the organ dominates that much the music but there are many moments where the Jon Lord/Keith Emerson influences are over-bearing and the guitarist is much in Line with Ritchie Blackmore and David O'list's great contributions on The Nice's Toughts album. Also the drumming is a little too derivative of Purple's Ian Paice's very original style.

Side I is more reminiscent of Mk I Purple's more prog moments and it is quite an enjoyment to get all of those greats solos and superb interplays. Side 2 is made up of two 11 min+ tracks which delve more into The Nice's early stuff. Beggar's Opera even make a reference to Blue Rondo A La Turque in the first track while the second track is IMO the highlight of the album. The Repertoire re-issue comes with two bonus tracks and they appear to come from a non-Lp single : Sarabande (3:32) and Think (4:25) are two great tracks that really add value to this promising debut.

However enjoyable this album may be , I cannot award more stars because of its tooo evident influences. Still worth a spin and Progheads are advised to check out the second album, which shows that those guys matured quickly and well.

Sean Trane | 3/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this BEGGARS OPERA review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.