BEDSIDE MANNERS ARE EXTRA

Bedside Manners are Extra is the second album from British symphonic progressive rock act Greenslade. I´ve owned and listened to the debut album from the band for many years but it´s only recently ( a couple of years ago) that I purchased Bedside Manners are Extra. I wasn´t disappointed to begin with and I actually liked this one better than the debut for a while. But having had the oppertunity to listen to Bedside Manners are Extra for a couple of years now I´d say that the debut wins the race.

The music on Bedside Manners are Extra is very symphonic which is mostly due to the fact that there are two keyboard players in the band. They have no guitarist on the other hand, but the guitars are not missed. Lots of vintage keyboard sounds like organ and mellotron are a large part of Greenslade`s sound. The vocals from Dave Lawson are okey but nothing more ( I like his sinister mood in the title track though). The music is very influenced by the big symphonic prog bands of the time Yes, Genesis and especially ELP. There are lots of classical inspired notes on the album. We also get to hear some drum soloing as the fourth song on the album called Drum Folk is a vehicle for Andy McCulloch to showcase his skills. There are also some very skilled keyboards soloing in that song.

The musicianship is excellent and lovers of vintage keyboard sounds should take a listen to this.

The production is better than on the debut. Warm and pleasant.

Greenslade was always a second division symphonic prog rock band IMO and even though I really enjoy their debut I know that it´s probably more out of nostalgia than out of objective opinion that I gave that one 4 stars. Bedside Manners are Extra is a good album but not really excellent. 3 stars is my rating. The songs don´t touch me and seem to much to be vehicles to showcase skills instead of emotion ( I guess Greenslade had the same disease as ELP).