MERCATOR PROJECTED

I find it funny how the 60s birthed prog rock, but not until '69 did we practically get the genre we know and love today, through the releases of many albums such as In The Court of The Crimson King, Uncle Meat, For My Children's Children's Children, and A Salty Dog. Another of these early prog rock releases has to be East Of Eden's Mercator Projected.

East Of Eden's debut is considerably less proggy than their follow up records, and definitely a bit more bluesy, but what is found here is some nice early prog in my mind.

What I like about this album is the more heavy psychedelic format these songs create, usually also combining with a more folk rock sound to create this very rocking, and driving record that I think, for the most part, works out very nicely, especially on tracks like Northern Hemisphere and In The Stable of the Sphinx. I like it a lot.

That said, though, I do not think this album has any really interesting moments. Obviously very early prog rock won't have stuff that excels to the heights of Close To The Edge or A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, nor is the genre refined enough to really get those enigmatic sweet spots, but I still feel like by 1969, especially after works came out and about from bands like Procol Harum, The Moody Blues, and The Mothers of Invention, which their albums have had some rather interesting moments up until this point, and so should be blueprints, if you will, for bands like East Of Eden to follow, I just still think East Of Eden's debut never really has any big moments that I truly adore. The songs are good, but they don't have that kick that makes me want to listen to them over and over again, unlike other albums around this time, which is rather disappointing.

An album that isn't really bad, but not really great either. I guess if you like the more rock side of prog than this album might actually be quite the treat. However, for me anyways, I feel like this doesn't quite get the spices rolling to really make this a stand out album in my mind. You can definitely see the proggy seeds growing on here, but they are still quite deep underground that only in certain moments will you might see them.