LORD OF THE AGES

Third album of theirs (fourth if you do include their first released Time Of Changes) and it was time for this trio (which had lost Johnstone to Elton John, but promptly replaced him) to confirm whatever hops was evident in their Seasons album. And in some ways they will almost succeed, but close, but no cigar.

Scoring a big hit from this album with their epic title track, I can never get away from the idea that they found this song in the middle of a cheese fondue. In itself, the track is rather good but brought down by some rather disastrous ideas such as the spoken narration. I was never a fan of those (bar Alice Cooper's Black Widow and Alan Parson's Tales), but here, they are almost as ridiculous Wakeman's Journey Around the Centre Table (I know, just taking a small pique here ;-) narrations. In either case, love or hate it, this track was their better-known moment and overall, it accompanies and album which fares much better than the previous Wasties Orchard. The average track of Lord Of The Ages is much superior to anything on that AFWO album or even on the previous Seasons album. But the Simon & Garfunkel influences are still overpowering and still ruining any chance of enjoyment for this writer. Father Jon and Falkland Green (which served as soundtrack to a TV series) are the more notable tracks on this slice of wax.

Generally seen as their better album, I was never one to recommend MC to friends and progheads alike, but should you really want to investigate, you might want to start with this one. I will not push further my reviews of their carreer, but rest assured we have seen the essential of their discography except for maybe the live album which I never heard (let alone seen).