AMBROSIA

Ambrosia´s debut album is a very pleasant rock album with slight progressive tendencies. It´s a bit too commercial for my tastes but it´s still a great album. Had I been into this style of music I would have rated Ambrosia one more star but that last star is reserved for the acts that I personally enjoy and not for the albums that are above average but not really to my liking.

The music on Ambrosia is very commercial with memorable choruses and hooks while there are some definite progressive tendencies in some of the instrumental interplays. Some of the songs reminds me a bit of the way Kansas sounds when they are most commercial. There are some songs that sounds more proggy than others though. Good examples would be Nice, Nice, Very Nice, Make Us All Aware ( note the melody line which sounds like one of the melody lines in the epic The Odyssey from Symphony X) and Mama Frog which has a jazz/ fusion rythm. The hit song Holdin' On To Yesterday is the song I think reminds me the most of Kansas, but it´s actually allright even though it´s very commercial.

The musicianship is really good on this album and I´m quite impressed with Ambrosia as musicians and composers.

The production is excellent. I really enjoy the soft seventies rythm section and the synth sounds used in some of the songs.

Allthough this is not my favorite style in rock I have to recognize quality when I hear it and Ambrosia are certainly a quality band. Fans of pop with prog tendencies like 10cc, Supertramp, Queen, Kansas, Toto, Boston could enjoy this. I know I did to a certain degree. 3 stars is deserved in this case.