ONE LIVE BADGER

The recordings on this album are from Badger's warming-ups for Yes at The Rainbow Theatre gigs, thus forming a nice pair for the "Yessongs" live album. Group's music is guitar and keyboard riff driven, having groovy passages supporting the more dramatic mellotron painted sequences, shimmering with religious gospel positive energies. The raw sound from the stage distributed y the contact of vinyl player syringe to this plastic is also very pleasing to my own ears. Songs "Wheel of Fortune" and "Wind of Change" rise for me as best compositions on this set, though the other tracks are quite nice also, not being musical masterpieces anyhow. The good vibrations on the gig are preserved in the audience's cheer, and Roger Dean's gatefold vinyl design with rising badger figurine in the inner side of the booklet is really fun. Maybe due cover art and my own time of album purchase makes this hope-giving fun little album associate strongly with winter. Recommended for fans of keyboard driven heavy prog, those open to Christian vintage rock and the collectors of solo albums from family of Yes members.