IF I COULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, I'D DO IT ALL OVER YOU

David Sinclair's keyboards do it for me. Sure, Banks, Wakeman and Emerson are the ones you'll probably pick as the top three players in the field, but for me Sinclair is king. At times, his keyboard sounds like a fuzzed out guitar, (the title track, "And I Wish I Were Stoned/Don't Worry" Hello Hello", etc.) His keyboards are so unique I can't think of another player who sounds like him. But enough gushing on Sinclair. This album begins a run of four must have albums for the fan of canterbury and I'd say this one would be a good start for anyone who would like to explore the scene for the first time. Every song is unmistakably English, with phenomenal musicanship, wonderful singing, very, very clever lyrics that are at times funny and a sound that is wholly original, (I can't think of one band that even tries to sound like them and pull it off credibly). This album contains three out and out classics, "As I Feel I Die" with Pye Hasting's delicate vocals, Richard Sinclair's subtle bass line just under the surface that comes out three minutes in and just WOWS me and then that keyboard fuzzing out over the bass jamming, UTTERLY FANTASTIC!!!, "With An Ear To The Ground You Can Make It" starts out with a catchy refrain, but then gallops into a perfect little ditty with neat keyboards, tempo changes then segways into my favorite fuzzed out Sinclair keyboard solo, ahhh...absolute heaven, god almighty it is just perfect, then to make things even more incredible a beautiful flute playing just over Pye's precious singing, one of the greatest unsung songs ever!, then the classic "For Richard", which is probably the most known song by the band, 14 minutes of jamming Jazz/Canterbury that has to be heard. As you probably figured, I like this record. It's definately an album of it's time, which might turn some people off, but if you can look past that and just immerse yourself inside the music, I'm sure you'll come out thinking it's wonderful, whimsical, clever, but very challenging. A true classic and only their second album, more wonderment lay ahead!