PAMPERED MENIAL

A surprisingly extraordinary album that I have heard about for eons but it frankly just didn't appeal to me but after finally hearing this debut album I am blown away! Many things are a surprise about this band. First off, they are from St. Louis, MO right here in the USA. I always assumed them to be another English band. Secondly, this band has in the form David Surkamp one of the few (if not the only) singers who sounds like Geddy Lee.

Not really too much to say about this album. On paper it sounds dull and uninspired. It is only mildly progressive, it is a short album clocking in at only a mere half hour, it adds little or nothing to music history. What this album excels at are extremely well-crafted songs that are powerful and catchy. This band like Supertramp, David Bowie, Queen and many others of the day learned how to craft beautiful and interesting songs that added just a touch of progginess as a seasoning. The effect is that it is simple enough to be instantly likable and complex enough to make it stand out more than simple pop music.

In effect, it is simply an album that must be heard to be appreciated because all the magic is in how all the notes go together. The conspiring effects of Surkamp's vocals, David Hamilton's sailing keyboards, Steve Scorfina's tasty bluesy guitar riffs and solos mixed in with the lushness of the violin, vitar and viola, mellotron and flute give a unique snapshot into a sound that captures some of the prog rock that came before and at the same time the simpler hard rock and AOR sounds that would dominate the late 70s. A melodic masterpiece.