À LA CARTE

I'm new to the progarchives community--few of you know me from a hole in the ground. So before I get called a completely narrow-minded idiot, please know I very much like and defend Genesis' 'Abacab' often. That should be enough evidence that I can accept once- groundbreaking bands streamlining their sound. As long as the material still carries a good degree of depth and quality, I'm in. But 'A La Carte' by Triumvirat is possibly the worst album I've heard by an otherwise great prog-rock outfit. A disaster.

I gave it a chance. I really did! Given that the 5 previous albums are all essential prog albums to one degree or another (especially the massive 'Spartacus'), 'A La Carte' is a severe wrong turn. Sure, they were streamlining, sure, Jurgen didn't want to be trapped in the prog mold any longer...but that doesn't meaning anything if the songs are no good. And none of these songs are good. None. On first listen I kept waiting for the good songs to appear...by the second side I kept waiting for the one good song that just had to be there. I desperately tried to justify my purchase by giving it the chance it deserves--just because it is Triumvirat, or so they say--but I kept coming up empty. I would prefer to give the album a more in-depth analysis, any album deserves a quality review, regardless of the quality of the album itself, but I no longer own it. Life's too short to waste on really bad records. Hail 'Spartacus'!!!