LAST FLIGHT

Tai Phong's last album before a long haitus (which they then did the excellent Sun album). This album is not as strong as it's predecessors (both masterpieces to my ears) but it still contains some excellent moments. The title track "Last Flight" is just as good/solid as anything they did on their previous albums and it makes this whole album worth having and is the reason for the 3 star rating. The song has Eela Craig "One Niter" like moments with melodies/harmonies that made 70's prog the classic era to my ears. That song alone is a "classic" to my ears and fortunately, it comprises 25% of the album which is a good thing :- ) The rest of the album is more in lines of what was on the AOR radio airwaves in 1979. What I mean to say is that the rest of the album is not horrible and the pop is "just mediocre and ok but nothing incredible". I get the feeling they had to do this album as a contractual obligation so they came into this album with one GREAT idea/song (The title track) just like the best of their previous 2 classics and had to somehow fill the rest of the album and may have written the remaining songs quickly with a shift towards radio airplay (think Giant for a Day maybe?).

As far as the one great title track, I wished it would not have ended as quickly as it did (with the quick fadeout just as things were really getting interesting). But it's still a great 10 minutes worth of listening.

Breaking the album apart:

The title track = ***** and great prog and takes up 25% of the album. The rest of the songs = **1/2

total = ***