SEVEN SECRETS

The third Fruupp album (on the now-collectable Dawn label) actually confirmed all the good thought after their two albums, but did not capitalize enough on them, either- except for the artwork done by bassist Farrely (as he had done the debut artwork too). Seven Secrets (seven tracks, get it ;-) is not only very marginally better than Future Legends from the proghead's viewpoint.

From the seven of those secrets, Wisdom seems to be clearly the one that will rise to rumour and clearly this is the most brilliant track on the album, even if it sounds like it's been done before. Garden Lady is also a higher than average Fruupp track, with its delicate middle section and good guitar solo. Again Farrelly's vocals are a good fit to the music it serves, but a far cry from the "tenors" of prog.

I think one of the weaknesses is that the main songwriter was guitarist McCusker, and that keyboardist Houston was all too often relegated to arranging the tracks. Once Houston starts writing - the opener Shekipah and its medieval feel and the instrumental Elizabeth - you can feel quite a difference. One filler on the album though: the title track, which while completely forgettable, but unfortunately cannot achieve it for its own good.

Not any worse than the average Fruupp album, this third album will see keyboardist Houston leave the group (not given enough space to write?) and will be replaced by Mason and for the winds by Ian McDonald. Good if you are into a soft symphonic prog sound inspired of Genesis but more comparable to BJH or Curved Air, but hardly essential.