THIS IS ... GRACIOUS !!

Gracious sophomore release comes as quite an improvement over their debut. The opener is supposely a suite with four parts called Super Nova: Arrival of the Traveller... But in fact it is just four different songs put together. None of the four has anything to link one with another. Still, not bad, specially the last piece, Prepare To Meet Thy Maker that has very good harmony vocals and some nice keys. Some parts are spoiled when they try too hard to sound like King Crimson.

CBS opens side two of the vinyl: nice hard rock with 60´s overtones and some latin percussions that were common at the time. I really didn´t like Paul Davis way of singing at first. You get used to after some time, but he could be a little better if he handn´t tried so hard to sound different just for the sake of it. Alan Cowderoy is a very good guitarrist. What´s Come To be is an acoustic track with lots of mellotron waves that sound more like a krautfock band than a british one. Again there is strong influences of bands like KC, Moody Blues and The Beatles (specially on the vocals). Blues Skies and Alibis is a more straighforward pop/rock number of the period with some heavy Santana-like solo thrown in during the bridge. Hold Me down closes the CD with a mixture of acoustic and electric hard rock. It´s the least interesting track of the lot.

Conclusion: While the band hadn´t yet found a true personality of their own, they were on the right path. Songwriting wise this album is far superior to their debut and it´s a pity that they didn´t have the chance to develop their sound some more, since they seemed to have the chops to do it. Quite interesting for the ones who love mellotrons and like to look for obscure bands of the period. For those this album is recommended.