TWELVE DREAMS OF DR. SARDONICUS

Spirit

Proto-Prog

4.15 | 205 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Sinusoid
Prog Reviewer

That's the spirit.

One of the best proto-prog acts that isn't vomitrociously over-hyped, Spirit gave the world a spectacular crossover pop/rock/psych/prog album with their fourth effort and showed us, the listeners, how they can stretch pop music beyond our imagination.

Various jazz, psych and pop elements creep their way into every song, yet Spirit gives us enough variety in the songs to prevent boredom. The genre checks aren't too widespread, and the changes are not too abrupt, so we don't get a wasted aural exercise here.

John Locke and Randy California are the key contributors here as their performances are dynamite. Progsters might recognise Locke moreso as his ''Space Child'' contributions are splendid from the floating piano lines to the Moog solo. Yet, California's responses and solo squeals in ''Street Worm'' more than match. Jay Ferguson also gets a special mention for his impressive vocal control and power without being too overwhelming.

DR. SARDONICUS is not short of great tracks. Some are very catchy like the post-Bo- Diddley ''Animal Zoo'', the upbeat ''Morning Will Come'' and the funky ''Mr. Skin''. Others are more poignant and touch your sould like ''Soldier'' and ''Nature's Way''. A few others can satisfy your intellectual stimulation such as the vibes-induced psych-fest ''Love Has Found a Way'', the synthesizer infested ''When I Touch You'' and the aforementioned ''Space Child''. The opening cut has various amounts of those elements complete with an orchestra fueled closing riff.

Only the short ''Why Can't I Be Free'' is not up to par with the rest of the album. The music may not be the most overwhelmingly dominating you've ever heard (the reason for the reserved rating), but make no mistake, DR. SARDONICUS is a force to be reckoned with.

Sinusoid | 4/5 | 2010-10-4

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).

Share this SPIRIT review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to Sinusoid
Report this review (#302039)
Buy SPIRIT music online with PA partners
Show all SPIRIT MP3/Stream
Go to SPIRIT page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for SPIRIT related discussions