CLASSICAL MUSIC AND POPULAR SONGS

Well, after hearing Martin Orford's second CD I was quite surprised by its overall AOR sound instead of a more proegressive approach. So I decided I should get his first to make sure I was not being unfair in my judgement. And surely Classical Music and Popular songs is a lot more what you should expect from somenone like Martin Orford than The Old Road. Yes, the Asia connection is here too (and the presence of John Wetton singing on some tracks certainly fuelled this feeling) on such songs like A Part Of Me and The Days Of Our Lives . It is no surprise those two have Wetton on lead vocals.

But the album has much more than just that. The opener Field Of Fallen Angels and The Overload could be on any IQ album. Excellent prog tracks! But the real gems are the instrumental ones: Quilmes, Fusion and Evensong are great pieces of prog music that actually differs from Orford's works with both Jadis and IQ and still they bear all the trademarks of a great songwriter and musician he is. Those songs alone are worth the price of the CD. The presence of almost all his colleagues from those bands did give the album a very strong and balanced sound on the whole of the CD.

In the end I think this album is less homogeneous than his second. But it has a far more strong and progressive material also. If you're a fan of IQ and Jadis I strongly advice you to get this album before The Old Road. If you liked the two Wetton sung tracks, than you should check The Old Road. If you don't, you better stick with the IQ and Jadis discography. And that should include Classical Music and Popular Songs. I really hope Orford will rellease more albums like this one in the future. 3,5 stars at least.