IN SPITE OF HARRY'S TOENAIL

Despite being a big fan of bands like Crimson, Gentle Giant and VDGG Gnidrolog use to be compared with this toenail was quite a hunk to swallow for me (sorry, the seduction for this joke was too high!). From the aspect of musical prowess and employment of instruments like flute, sax, cello and oboe which is really quite an unique combination everything seams to be brilliant. Certainly the compositions are very cumbersome with a highly aggressive mood throughout most of this album but that's the case as well with some of VDGG's stuff. That should really not be that a big problem for me to find full enjoyment nonetheless after a couple of spins. I think the biggest hurdle for my own complete pleasure is the voice of the singer here and the songwriting style (though usually I'm really not the type of music fan who cares much for perfect songwriting). Actually most of the instrumental parts on this album would receive the maximum score from me, still I rather prefer their follow-up one. Anyway this band was certainly quite an extraordinary band in the early seventies and actually hard to be compared to any other one since they really developed their very own sound. Whether you like it or not still remains a matter of acquired taste. I've to admit it took me as well quite a while to love Hammill's voice and maybe one day the same will happen with Colin Goldring's one (though they can't be compared to each other by any means). Nevertheless this drawback can't keep me off from giving this album a 4-stars rating!