DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

This is maybe the most influential album ever for prog. It's up there with In the Court of the Crimson King, but I don't think this is quite as good. It is Essential nonetheless, and features many prog defining moments. It was also one of the first albums to use a mellotron, and this paved the way for many prog rock bands to come.

The opener is an overture of sorts, with some spoken word poetry. It features the orchestra in large amounts, and it is kind of boring, I hate to say. Not really bad, though.

Dawn is a Feeling is disapointment for me. I just don't find the main melody very appealing. It also sounds very dated, which usually doesn't bother me, but oh well. Not a very good song, I don't think. But you might like it. I can't really describe it. It also sounds much darker than what I would imagine dawn to feel like.

Another Morning is a great song, I think. It features a very fun, singsongy cheerful verse melody. It also features a more sad sounding chorus, and the instrumentation is great. The orchestra parts don't fit with the melodies in my opinion, but the song is overall a good one. Fits the mood of morning well.

Peak Hour is an OK song, sounds kind of Who-ish in parts. The melodies are overall not as strong as the other songs, and it rocks a little more and fits the mood of Lunch well.

Whereas side one was inconsistent, side two is spectacular. Tuesday Afternoon features a very sad sounding melody, and some other great melodies, along with a rollicking kind of country western part, except without the country part. Nice piano, very good mellotron/orchestra in this part. It segues into Evening (Time to Get Away) with a very dark and moody acoustic section. Excellent spacy vocals. Time to Get Away features an excellent catchy chorus, and the verse melody is pretty good; It does feature some dated pitch shifting in the vocals, ala Roy Orbison, but its not bad at all. This song is excellent. Fits the mood well.

Sunset is awesome, featuring a very dreamy spacy melody and a great orchestra interlude, very mideastern sounding. One of the best orchestra bits on here. This segues into one of the best parts on the album, Twilight Time. Very awesome melody, awesome bridge, great lyrics, just awesome stuff. Much faster paced than the slow sunset. This also fits the evening mood well, but I think Twilight Time would also have worked as the Dawn Melody.

Nights in White Satin. Ooh, how awesome. Gives me goosebumps. Insanely good melody and vocals and lyrcis, and some great orchestra and mellotron-ing. Great flute in the bridge. Very dark, moody, night time song. Perfect for the mood. On my version of the CD, it has seven tracks and Late Lament is on the tail end of Nights... It's pretty much just a reprise of the spoken poetry from the first track.

So this song is awesome, very influential, awesome mellotron passages. Orchestra passages are usually pretty good, sometimes not great, a little too Disnye-esque for me and not fitting to the rest of the song at times, but all in all a solid album. 4.5 stars, plus another half a star for the influence it had and the greatness it spawned. Without this album there would little to nothing in the way of prog. Maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but either way its an awesome album.