SIX COMPLETE

A fine return from a classic Finnish Progrock band. This has been awaited by some, yet it was a bit of a surprise to most. SIX complete, their sixth album, is pretty much like an extended version of six, which was an EP published a bit earlier, and is a very stable CD with, unlike the title would suggest, 9 different songs.

Take Six, I find some influence by Dave Brubeck's all time hit in the tilte of this song. The song is a good piece, for an opening track. Completely composed by Frank Robson who wrote words to all the songs that had words. This track shows pretty much where Tasavallan Presidentti ie. Pressa stands nowadays. The music isn't as imaginative as before. The unconventional feeling of the music has disappeared, and the band has gone quite a lot to a more mainstream direction. I don't take this as a bad thing, the music is still good, and very progressive. It's actually quite funky rock rather than progrock as far as the genre tells. This song as most go in simple 4/4.

Second song, Last Night was composed by the superb guitarist, Jukka Tolonen, who also composed half the songs on this album. It begins with a long instrumental part then coming up with lyrics. This track has very imaginative riffs and is a top class rock song. Not easy, but not too difficult either.

Chesterfield Blue is a slower song with great lyrics. Personally I find Junnu (Juhani) Aaltonen doing a great job on this track. The track is a ballad in a way, yet made in that great groovy Pressa way, with a really tricky bridge in between verses.

Don't Ask Why doesn't sound at all like Tasavallan Presidentti to begin with. Aaltonen plays great flute and that is pretty much what this song has to offer, something to listen to on the lyrics side and the awesome fluteplaying.

Fifth is Climb The Ladder is what AOR stands for, this is a step down in the class I was expecting. Reminds me quite a lot of Wigwam's new stuff, there isn't a lot to say about this. Good playing, but the song doesn't "give me the kicks". Possibly the worst song on this album, yet good enough to listen to every now and then. Not bad at all.

The Maze is again composed by Tolonen. It's easy to hear, Mr Tolonen has kept his rock'nroll style for long. The riffs run like in the young days and the song has something catchy to it. I enjoyed this song very much.

Dance is an istrumental composed by Jukka Tolonen, originally from the Lambert Land album which was made in 1972. This is a modified version. A bit more artistic, but not as ambitious as the early one. It is as if they decided to take a calmer approach to it and atill take the values further and bring something more to the song. They have kept the silly feeling of the song though. It sounds very good and very fresh, probably the best song on this album which is a bit daft since it's a new version of an old song.

8th, Five Leaves Left is what old rock bands do best. This song I've heard Deep Purple play too. Not exactly, but in the same sclaes and notes. A good song, not something to make your socks spin, but good enough to be worth listening to.

The last song, Blast From The Past I heard live also and remembered it before I bought this album. This song is very awesome, very moody and yet greatly striking. I really enjoy this song, there doesn't seem to be any bad parts in this. Possibly the second best on the album. The bass pattern that goes through the whole song is really hypnotic. I really like this.

It appears as if the band grew older, which is only natural. It also seems that there are two kinds of songs, composed by Tolonen or Composed by Robson. could be because I'm a guitarist myself that I find myself liking more the songs Tolonen did, not counting the last one that is. Robson did great songs too, but they appear a bit more like poprock.

The songs are mainly quite long, for example Dance the longest is 7,24 while the shortest, Blast from the Past is 4,33. Not hit material obviously, but the long length and not so much lyrics means one hears awesome playing on each track, so even a moderate track will sound superb once the professionals get to the solos.

I gave this 3 stars, good but not essential. Why? Because Pressa has many essential albums that are better than this, and this shouldn't be the one you listen to first if you want to get into the earlier stuff. This album is good enough for me to recommend it to others than just big fans. 4 stars on the other hand would be lying. I don't want to give stars too easily.

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