THIS IS ... GRACIOUS !!

Having seen little success with their debut album GRACIOUS managed to record enough material before calling it quits after their second album THIS IS GRACIOUS was released due to no publicity and no support from the record label. This album sees the band change their style by toning down the wild and unpredictability of their genre changes and develops a more epic approach.

The jewel of the album is the first side-long epic "Super Nova" which starts out with some really cool spaced-out sound effects dishing out the best progressive electronic of the day and then begins to really rock out with a Floydian guitar riff that reminds me of the Syd Barrett years. Act two delivers a good drum beat with pleasantly interacting guitars and keyboards and the anthem to the "Blood Red Sun" begins and ushers in acoustic guitar passages and the ever changing flow of the four chapters continues for 25 minutes.

The rest of the album is more hard rock oriented with shorter times and slightly less progressive and probably intended to get a single or two for any possible radio airplay which never materialized. "C.B.S." has a good organ and guitar run with latin percussion and actually has a Yes kind of feel at times. "Blue Skies And Alibis" sounds a bit like Steely Dan. "Hold Me Down" sounds like Free.

I have a mixed reaction towards this album. The band clearly learned how to focus their attention on writing more cohesive pieces of music creating a slightly more commercial feel to the whole thing. The songs are better constructed and are a little more memorable but the unbridled live wire approach of the first album was one of the attributes that I really like about this group. Overall I like the maturity of the album but miss the diversity. In the end this is a decent second outing for this lesser known early symphonic prog band that employs a pop vocal technique which adds a slight contrast to the sophistication of the music. Recommended.