OF QUEUES AND CURES

Never quite sure as to when I was listening to intentional comedy rock, and when I was listening to a serious passage of collaboration from some of the better musicians of the time, this album cemented it's place in my permanent collection of regular players on the strengths of what I think to be the albums standout track Dreams Wide Awake. This for me encapsulates everything that I love about prog rock: driving bass, dissonant and manic solo work, altering and engaging key & time signatures and the complete absense of any drug infused sounding falsetto grumblings about space and the passage of time.

Aside from my personal favorite though, I think that the album represents a more light hearted side to the Canterbury Scene with elements of Great British self mockery throughout, right down to the "spoken" Phlakaton which appeared as a result of Pyle's incessant insistance that drum solo's were the way forward. Always a soft spot for this album and always a recommendation to anyone wanting to widen their horizons, get into Prog Rock or to anyone who's been eternally searching for a musician called Dave Stewart who isn't a total... well, you know where i'm going with this.