LADY LAKE

The pacifistic opener of this album called "I Could Never Be A Soldier" really made one of my friend who is a reserve officer to rip his pants. As myself being a reserve soldier too, I personally do not either share the idealism of this beautiful song, but I admire the sincerity and courage and meaning of this statement. It's much bolder to say in a nationalistic society that you couldn't be a soldier than that you could be a one. And the only fault of this attitude is that as everybody else in the world cannot be made to think in similar manner, the violent conflicts will be the harsh reality of our unjust world. The song starts delicately with a flute accompanied with a guitar and a singer, and later the chorus grows up very strong, and the song continues with an interestingly fumbling jazzy rhythm. The further progression including the heavy emphasizing of the verse and strongly bursting flute reminds me the classic works of Jethro Tull, and the singing voice reveals the Welsh origin of this band. The quiet part in the middle of the song resembles then King Crimson's "I Talk to The Wind" quite much.

Following tune "Ship" is my favorite song here. The heavy horn sections replace the standard solution of Mellotron arrangements. The descending chorus makes this sound like one of the golden oldies from the late 60's, truly one of the most touching songs I have heard in a long time. Horns have a very peculiar jazzy rhythm, and the singer has unbelievably strong emotional load in his voice. Sadly the tune ends up with a fade-out, but here this solution works in a similar manner as in Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", where the song and chorus is suggested to continue forever.

"A dog with no collar" is a short beautiful acoustic minor ballad between the longer numbers, and the following title tune begins with the drums giving us some jazz noise. Powerful bass and horn melodies packed up with sensation of a mystery resembles King Crimson's "In The Wake of The Poseidon" album's overall feeling. Soon the fast rhythm calms down to a wonderful slow ballad, which grows slowly up to a hard shuffle in a manner of the previous band mentioned.

"Same dreams" is then a happier short tune opening up with a piano and a trumpet. This track too proves that the awesome strong melodies are a trademark of this band. The final track "Social embarrassment" fades in from the void with a taunting and chaotic horn driven rhythm, and the song continues as a fast jumping jazzy composition. If the lyrics are listened carelessly, one could hear that they sing about Emerson, Lake & Palmer playing too loud. This song pleased my tastes least of these six song which build this album, but I have heard much worse tracks too. And there are surely good musical parts here too, but the composition as an entity wasn't so great.

I would recommend this album with a very beautiful cover jacket sincerely for the fans of classic prog, like first albums of King Crimson, Genesis and the classic work of Jethro Tull.