SKY

Sky I is as the name suggests the debut studio album from UK progressive rock act Sky. Sky has a very prolific progressive rock name in the lineup and it´s the reason why I picked this album up in the first place. Francis Monkman is mostly known for being a founding member of Curved Air and guesting on the Rajah Khan song from the third Renaissance album Prologue. Sky is not a showcase for Monkman´s skills though, but more of a group effort.

The music is very melodic, generally simple, instrumental progressive rock. Most melody lines are played by the classically trained guitar player John Williams on acoustic guitar but Monkman´s keyboards are also pretty dominant. The rythm section is pretty straight forward. Just keeping the beat most of the time. Nothing out of the ordinary. The album consists of six songs where the first five are short ( about 3 minutes each) and the last song Where opposites meet Pt. 1 to Pt. 5 is a 19:30 minute long piece. Personally I think Sky´s music fits the short song formula best. I´m a little bored when I listen to Where opposites meet Pt. 1 to Pt. 5. Sky reminds me a bit about late seventies and early eighties Camel.

The musicianship is excellent. I could have wished for a more interesting rythm approach, but I guess that´s an aquired taste.

The production is a bit thin and it´s obvious that we´re close to the end of the seventies here.

The music is very pleasant and nice but it´s almost too nice at times and as other reviewers have also pointed out this is close to easy listening background music. It´s a bit more sophisticated and interesting than that though and I´ll rate the album 3 stars. It´s a pretty average album that seriously lacks highlights IMO. Good but never excellent.