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Starcastle - Concert Classics CD (album) cover

CONCERT CLASSICS

Starcastle

 

Symphonic Prog

2.83 | 16 ratings

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patrickq
Prog Reviewer
2 stars I'm not terribly impressed with Concert Classics v.5 - - for two reasons.

First, there's the fact that the much of the singing was re-recorded after the event. I'll admit it: this is a substantial pet peeve of mine, but here Starcastle really overdoes the overdubs. To me, the band (a) claims that this is a record of their live show, and it's really not, and (b) thinks we won't notice.

Anyway, the bigger issue is the quality of the songs. They're not terrible, but they're really nothing special. At first I assumed that the 50 minutes here was cut down from a longer setlist, but at the time this show was recorded (reportedly Boston, August 12th, 1979, but I've begun to seriously doubt that) Starcastle was an opening act, but also played festivals and apparently headlined smaller venues on occasion. They also played at colleges in the Northeast US. Anyway, this seems to be the setlist for a show supporting their 1977 album Citadel, and it's possible that this is their entire set. The first half of the recording is primarily songs from Citadel; among the remaining three songs are two of their best-known ("Lady of the Lake" and "Fountains"). This was probably the point in their career when they in top form, and yet their sound ranges from bland late-1970s AOR to minor-league Yes mimicry.

To be fair, while Concert Classics v.5 isn't a good album, it's not a bad album either; it just doesn't possess anything that sets it apart from other rock albums (except perhaps the excessive use of studio overdubs!).

patrickq | 2/5 |

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