SONG OF SEVEN

2.5 stars. Sign of the times, I suppose. The 80´s would not be kind to prog... And this album was one of the first hints. The first two songs, For You And For Me and Some Are Born are nice, if somewhat simple compared to almost everything Mr. Anderson have done up till then. Still they were quite good, except for the sax interventions on the latter (really atrocious, it almost ruins the otherwise fine tune). But this first impression is crashed by the poor, derivative, poppy stuff that comes next. The musicians are excellent, many of whom worked with Peter Gabriel with better results, I should point out.

But Song of Seven is somewhat saved by the last tune, the title track. This 11 minute epic is very progressive and inspired, one of Anderson´s best. Everything works and stands proudly along his most interesting and accomplished compositions. It would have fitted just fine in any classic Yes album or Ollias Of Sunhillow. Most of the credit I give for this album comes from this song alone.

I really expected at the time that Song Of Seven could hold the quality of Anderson´s first album with the help of extra, more skilled musicians. Ultimately it delivers a fantastic track, two good ones, and six weak pop tunes. It could have been worse, I guess...