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Kayak - Kayak CD (album) cover

KAYAK

Kayak

 

Crossover Prog

4.04 | 189 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars It's been quite a long time I do not listen to this CD. This morning, I put it on my car's CD player and enjoyed it while driving. It's a true classic album that has been around for 30 years now! It's clear in my mind how I knew this Dutch band for the first time. It was mid 70s when my big brother, Henky (then a rock broadcaster) gave me a tape that contained Genesis Nursery Crime and Kayak 2nd album. He also gave me a local music magazine Aktuil that featured the band. I played the tape while reading the magazine. It was such a good experience for me who were new to rock music in only couple years before then. I was impressed with the song "Woe and Alas" and it has become my all time favorite since then.

Kayak music is typically melodic and less complex, sometimes poppy. It has an excellent songwriting and tight structure. The strength of Kayak music relies on its melody and harmony especially in vocal lines and keyboard / piano. The vocal quality is excellent. Many of their music passages are memorable. Typically, their music is accessible to many listeners be it a prog or non prog lover.

"Alibi" is a nice song in upbeat tempo, opened with guitar fills and piano. It has a good melody and nice piano / keyboard. "Wintertime" is performed in slower trmpo but it's still upbeat. Very nice song with great vocal harmony and melody. It's a classic tune! "Mountain Too Rough" is a mellow track with great classical piano work accompanying the melodic vocal line. The piano solo backed up by mellotron during interlude part is great; followed by nice vocal harmony.

"They Get To Know Me" is probably the most prog part of this album judging not based on its long duration (9:18) but more to its structure. It starts with a simple continuous music and turns quieter to let the vocal enters the music. The solo keyboard part accompanied by solo guitar during interlude is really excellent. This track, I believe, would favor prog lovers. Even though this track is not well known to most people but I really enjoy it very much. Simple composition but excellent. I think, there are many bands in the vein of neo prog has somewhat influenced by Kayak music.

"Serenades" kicks off with a guitar passage that, melody-wise, similar to Uriah Heep "Magician's Birthday" tune. However, the overall structure is different. This track uses piano as main rhythm section augmented by guitar fills. Excellent. "Woe and Alas" is my longtime favorite. It has a powerful and tasty melody performed with excellent vocal harmony. The intro part is really memorable especially when it flows to piano that bring the nice vocal comes to the music. Oh man . this track is superb! Simple yet memorable. I repeat this track 3 times when I played it this morning without any sign of boring. I even emulate the singing.

"Mireille" is a melodic instrumental piece featuring keyboard work, mellotron and guitar in relatively slow tempo. It flows seamlessly to "Trust In The Machine" in a faster tempo with nice vocal and stunning keyboard in spacey mood. This is another prog tune in this album. "His Master's Noise" is an excellent mellow track with melodic voice line and piano as rhythm. The bonus track "We Are Not Amused" is good even though the sonic quality is not good.

Kayak is another side of prog music; it's probably a kind of progressive pop rock with symphonic / classical touch.. Having known this album for decades and it's still an excellent album, it's obviously an excellent addition in your prog collection! Highly recommended! GW, Indonesia.

Gatot | 4/5 |

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