3

Giving this album such a low rating seems wierd to me because i actually find it enjoyable and worth buying. it's not nearly as good as hamburger concerto, but it does have some really strong moments especially round goes the gossip (the rocking song) and Sylia (the pop sucess). The rest of the album is also decent, but it is just a little bit tough to get into.

Love remembered is a very pretty little song with some nice flute and acoustic guitar work. It's just not memorable enough to bring you back to it time and time again. The story seems the same for the rest of the album. Carnival fugue and Focus III are both perfectly decent songs focusing on the talents of the bands leaders, but they are really unessential songs

Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers! is the albums return to some really good music. It is an extended track that gives some extended improv time to both Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman who really shine with some magnificent playing. The track just has to many slow parts that lose your interest for it to be a great song.

After the interesting but unessesary Elspeth of Nottingham we get to the albums 26 minute closer. While the beginning and end of this song are quite brilliant the middle is really blahhh. It is a song i would have really loved had it been 16 minutes long rather than 26.

I really hate giving this album a mediocre album because it is worth buying and there is an awful lot of quality music. The kicker though is that it also has alot of music that unnessesary or really quite boring. If the highlights of this album were copressed onto a single album rather than a double album i might be giving 4 or possibly 5 star rather than 3. Despite that i still half recommend it.