HEADS OR TALES

Saga was the band that got me into progressive rock in the beginning. I am old enough to remember the release of this album too and all their great albums. Listening to the older Saga brings back a lot of both bad and good memories from many years ago.

Today, I would not brand Saga a prog rock band. Pomp rock is a far better label. On this album (and on Behavior), they were on the peak of their career and the fall down the hillside from Behaviour was a pretty painful one, although they still have an impressive large fan-base.

Heads Or Tales was recorded and released in the 1980s and it sounds like it too. This album has not escaped the ravages of time particular well. The plastic fantastic sound is pretty dire at places. So '80s in other words. The songs are not that bad though and pretty good. But the guitars and the synths has been given a horrible sound and that almost destroys this album. The Sound Of Strangers are still a very good song. So is Cat Walk. The rest of the album has a couple of turkeys, unfortunate. But it is still a good album from a band whose music I once liked, but which I now only have a platonic relationship with.

3 stars