DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

This album is usually regarded as the first progressive, or particularly, symphonic rock album ever made. Whether this is factual or not isn't much important, but the album really introduced symphonic orchestral arrangements and especially Mellotron sounds into pop/rock music. And that may be enough to deserve a place amongst the most crucial albums.

On the other hand, from today's perspective, the album is quite out-dated. First half is a sugary, pop ballads with loads of strings and often sound very childish. The second half, starting from "Tuesday Afternoon", is much better and it introduces wonderful Mellotron minor-key melancholy sounds.

Production is nicely done, with themes merging, making a real "concept album", which tries to depict a 24 hours in a introspective, poetic way. It is obvious from where Greg Lake found inspiration for his lush balladry, be it with KING CRIMSON or ELP, and in this matter "Days of Future Passed" is surely an influential and groundbreaking record.

But it is far from any masterpiece. Listening today at least half of it is negligible. Objectively, out of the scope of this site, I would rate it 3 stars. Having in mind the purpose of PA, after all, this album should be listened by all prog fans because it was an important record in the development of progressive rock. Barely ****