TALL TALES

I haven't written a review for a while, but it's essential to set the story straight on this album. First of all, if you like 70s style symphonic prog, you need to get this album. It's excellent: the writing, musicianship, and engineering are all terrific. The best comparison would be mid-70s Genesis, in particular the mellower end of Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering. While it's not quite as good as those albums, it also doesn't have those albums' low points, such as "Your Own Special Way," etc. A couple comments from other reviewers that I must simply correct: first, some criticize this album for being derivative. So what. Derivative is a negative word. The fact, is this album is 70s-style progressive rock, and it does it very well. Would someone criticize a classical composer for being derivative of 18th century Germanic composers? No! It's simply a style of music, and Crucible is masterful in its genre. Second, the band is compared to Kansas and Styx - very dangerous. There is no "Babe" or "Play the Game Tonight" here. Any comparison to Kansas or Styx is tangential at best, and must be limited to their earliest, most proggy work. Finally, it's also dangerous and misleading to compare the singer to Geddy Lee of Rush. The main difference: Lee has a lousy voice that screechy and goat-like. While Bill Esposito's voice has some similarities to Lee's, it's only favorably, and Esposito also has hints of Jon Anderson, Peter Gabriel, and others. Bottom line: if you like 70s style Prog rock, chances are you'll love this album.