CRESSIDA

Cressida's debut is a good example of bands which haven't sorted out their stuff yet. They are good musicians and there are interesting passages here and there, with a variety of styles, including some folkish acoustic passages, some jazzy, some psychedelic guitar outbursts. The keyboard work is the highlight, as the songs are dominated by organ, with some piano, harpsichord and mellotron added to a good effect.

With all that, the bast lacked, as I see, consistency in songwriting, and it kinda dissolves the quality of the original and interesting passages in mostly good-but-not-great songs and when you finish listening the album, you are sure that you heard something very good, but, apart from a few songs, not very memorable.

The best songs are Depression, which represents the band at its proggiest (maybe together with One of a Group, with has lots of things going on but not very consistent), plus Cressida, Down Down and Tomorrow is a Whole New Day, each one on its own style representing Cressida's signature sound dominated by great organ passages. I'd include in the list of the best Lights in my Mind, which works well as a more straightforward and commercial song with Cressida's best, and The Only Earthman in Town, with great organ solos.

The rest of the songs are not bad at all, they are all fine, but they don't highlight the strengths of the band and you end up almost with the case of a stronger song followed by a not so strong, followed by another strong, and so on. Anyway, fans of organ-dominated early prog will find a lot to enjoy here, but people who are not a lot into early prog probably will not find a lot of value in it.