AMBROSIA

Not enough good ideas to make the album stand out musically, but the production is great! Here is my track-by-track opinion:

And... Somewhere I've Never Travelled: a rich composition reminiscent of the radio-friendly Symphonic Prog of Styx. Although not great overall, the keyboards crescendo at the end leaves a nice pompous prog feel.

Cowboy Star: soft pop song that leaves nothing special beyond its beautiful instrumentation and dreamy string parts. All this until the middle, as it then develops into a pompous orchestral composition with epic, aggressive, but also mellow parts. It clearly refers to a movie soundtrack, it's like accompanying scenes that were never filmed. Very interesting!

Runnin' Away: close to the style of Alan Parson's Project, but without offering anything special as a composition.

Harvey: acoustic country ballad, just guitar and voice. It works fine for what it is, but it doesn't fit well with the rest of the album.

I Wanna Know: nice, dynamic pop-rock composition, but afraid of itself. It could develop into something epic, but it seems as if it is "holding back" so as not to escape the radio-friendly limits. Its outbursts are limited, while it has significant potential. I would like it to be performed by Kansas!

The Brunt: some choral vocals save it until the 2nd minute, when suddenly an orchestral storm breaks out, reminiscent of a classic film soundtrack, before the song turns into African tribal rhythms, a jumble of samples, and a return to pop forms before the abrupt closure. Interesting attempt to bring it all together, but the imprint of the song is not clear.

Danse with Me George (Chopin's Plea): as the title suggests, the main element of the song is its piano parts, based on Chopin's work. The general style of the song is significantly similar to that of Queen in A Night at the Opera, but without the special elements that made them stand out. A Latin passage in the middle of the song is the bridge to something completely different, as we re-enter the spectrum of the classical orchestra playing a 50s-like musical, before returning to Chopin for the finale. I find the composition clever and interesting, and I think it would be the most suitable track to close the album. It's my favorite on this record!

Can't Let a Woman: nothing prog about this song, just an American pop-rock song with a beautiful orchestration.

We Need You Too: a simple piano ballad, like thousands out there.

Rating:
Excellent arrangements and production like the previous album, but the compositions are not so inspired. The last two songs degrade the album even more, as they are the most irrelevant. "Danse with Me George (Chopin's Plea)" is not enough to save the album from the 2 stars spectrum.

Less than I expected music-wise, more than I expected sound-wise! Here is my track by track opinion:

Nice, Nice, Very Nice: Ambrosia's first of two singles, it has that rare quality which makes a prog song pop enough to become a radio hit. A catchy composition with great arrangements, and a very promising start to the album.

Time Waits for No One: As a composition it reminds me of Genesis, but with different arrangements. An interestingly sounding song.

Holdin' on to Yesterday: A blues rocker with prog elements, it's the second single of the album and the biggest hit. The sound of this album is fantastic, but the compositions are not that powerful.

World Leave Me Alone: A mainstream rocker of mediocre quality, but again, the arrangements and production are wonderful.

Make Us All Aware: Oh, we got something here! Shiny prog with medieval keyboards, it balances between a pop song and a bombastic prog composition. Styx are one of my favorite bands, and this reminds me of them. My favorite song thus far!

Lover Arrive: A simple piano ballad, with outstanding arrangements and production. No wonder the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording, its sound is truly remarkable!

Mama Frog: It begins as a "serious" Jazz Prog composition, close to the keyboards-based style of ELP. Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" is recited in a pompous style in the middle of it, before an Eclectic Prog bridge that leads to a reprise of the first part of the song, followed by an abrupt conclusion. By far the most "true" prog track of the album, certainly interesting but not very attractive for me.

Drink of Water: Clear Alan Parsons Project influences over here, a ballad with ethereal vocals that looks to the future, sounding more 80s than everything else is the album. Again, the magnificent arrangements and production are the best things!

Rating:
More notable for its fabulous sound than its compositional quality. "Make Us All Aware" is the only song I will repeatedly listen to again in the future, but I will definitely listen to the whole album again in a quality sound system, as it is one of the most well produced albums I've had the pleasure to encounter! 2-2.5 stars for the compositions, but it sounds so great that I will give it 3!

Symphonic Pop anyone? Ambrosia's follow up to their progtastic debut is a very different sounding album in many respects.In some ways it is even slicker and poppier but at the same time it is more symphonic with Alan Parson's Project's Andrew Powell providing some excellent orchestral arrangements. And of course with Alan Parson's himself in the producer's chair this time the sound is as rich and as immaculate as you would expect.The opening two tracks "And....Somewhere I've Never Travelled" are very catchy pop songs played and sung with particularly gorgeous harmony vocals and lead directly into "Cowboy Star" the first of the symphonic tracks.The main song is fairly basic pop song but the instrumental section is a full blown orchestral extravaganza very reminiscent of Copland.If like me you are a Copland fan you will probably like this track- a lot.Side one is completed by a couple of pleasant pop songs.I am one of the few (I think) Prog fans who like big bombastic tracks broken up with simpler songs and actually make an album feel more balanced. Genesis were masters of that as evidenced on "Wind and Wuthering".

Side two is in some ways even more ambitious. The opening track "I Wanna Know"has a great emi-improvised slowburn build up before the song proper kicks in and a great big fat bombastic prog-rocker it is too."The Brunt" which follows is another very quirky number about dealing with traffic and likening it to a .The main instrumental section is head spinningly complex almost Zappaesque ending up as a bizarre soundscape full of jungle noises and chants mixed with the sound with the sound of elephants trumpeting in the background.The musical pastiche."Danse With Me George" presumably referring to Chopin's relationship with George Sands is even more ambitious at just over seven minutes and close in spirit to what 10CC were doing on the "Original Soundtrack" but frankly more innovative and enjoyable. The album is rounded off with a punchy power-pop rocker "Can't Let a Woman"jwhich perfectly shows up their dynamic style and a wistful ballad "We Need You Too"although even that last track has some dramatic moments. I must admit when I first heard this album many moon ago I found it almost too dense to fully appreciate but with repeated listenings the shear richness of this recording really does reveal itself.Clearly it is not for everyone but as a pop-prog cross-over this album is hard to beat.

Another Classic- 5 stars

"Nice Nice Very Nice"

Poor old Ambrosia are still remembered primarily for their string of hits in the early eighties like "How Much I Feel" and "Biggest Part Of Me" all very pleasant love ballads but hardly Prog right? In fact there is a lot more to them than those singles. Their eponymous debut is an absolute stunner. Style-wise it could be described as a very proggy form of West Coat Rock incorporating elements of ELP,Bernstein and Blue Eyed Soul along the way.The opening track "Nice Nice Very Nice" seems to leap out of the speakers with its bombastic thudding contrapuntal base and swirling hammond organ and an extremely catchy chorus. The next track "Time Waits For No- one" is even more striking with its latin infused rhythms and one of the most inventive instrumental sections clearly inspired by Bernstein circa "West Side Story" Just superb.In fact it is interesting how similar to ELP the band sound on this track no doubt due to both bands being so heavily inspired by people like Copland and Bernstein."Holding On To Yesterday" is certainly not Prog even in the loosest sense but nevertheless is a gorgeous soulful ballad and probably an indicator of the more mainstream music they produced later on."Make Us All Aware" which opens side two is another brilliant and very proggy song with its celtic style instrumental section.Probably the most astonishing track is "Mama Frog" - a full on slice of Jazz Fusion even incorporating a couple of spoken verses from "The Jabberwocky". On top of the sheer sophistication of the playing, the actual production is first rate probably helped by Alan Parsons engineering input.Ambrosia would never produce anything quite as progressive as this album but I am probably one of the few Prog Archive reviewers who like all of their albums almost as much as their debut. Everything they did was pretty slick and classy to these ears anyway.As for the debut though I cannot recommend it enough.An absolute blasty of an album

5stars

Alan Parsons has been involved with this band since his first solo record "Tales Of Mystery and Imagination". The colour and style of this album is different than "Life Beyond L.A" because of the lack of hit tracks. The only hit track of this album is the one that got them on the map, titled "Nice, Nice, Very Nice", a soft rock piece and a very well written and well structure piece on the album. However with Alan Parsons engineering, do you think that's the best this album can get? If you do, then you'll be mistaken, the amount of creativity and Alan Parsons magic found on this gem is staggering. Songs like "Time Waits For Noone", "Holding Onto Yesterday", "Make Us All Aware", and "Mama Frog" are the key hard hitters on this wonderful album. The singing from David Pack and Joe Puerta is just tonally beautiful, Joe's bass playing on the album is very technical and well written, Christopher North is masterful behind the keys, and Burleigh Drummond is a very good drummer who con clearly play all the odd times on Mama Frog. The orchestration on the album is unbelievable, the narration on Mama Frog and the bass undertones send chills up your spine. Just for Mama Frog alone, this album deserves a 4 Star review, but there are a lot of great pieces on this album. "World Leave Me Alone", "Lover Arrive" and "Drink Of Water" are nice soft songs with great hooks, good playing, and of course unbelievable vocals.

My conclusion is, this is a fairly underrated album, the vocals are gorgeous, the keyboards are strong and well played, and the songwriting is top notch. What's not to like about this album? Whatever anyone sees, I can't see it, this album is beyond amazing.

The debut album by Ambrosia is the most progressive one but still does not quality beyond an average prog-related material despite scoring high in a pop-rock territory.

Excellent vocal harmonies, catchy songs and various instruments used belong to the definitive highlights. Neither compositions nor instrumetanl performances amaze with complexity but the musicians are competent enough to find themselves somewhere between Eagles/Kansas. The keyboardists and the drummer seem to be the most proficient players here.

"Mama frog" bears echoes of Yes and Canterbury, it is one of the most progressive tracks on this album.

Solemn moments with church organ and angel harmonies are present in the beginning and end of the last track as well as in a more rocking fashion on track, too.

Though a higly professional, well arranged (by Alan Parson) and thought-out record, it can't get more than 3.5 stars for it is not special progressive effort.

Okay, this is prog. It's a special kind of album, because I've read the other albums of the band are more disco-pop, which can be a good thing aswell.

But for a progressive rock-website, a prog-album is what we want. And a prog-album it is. The album starts of with some easy listening pop-rock songs, but when the listener reaches the final part of the album, there are some treats.

The musicianship on the entire album is outstanding and the production (Alan Parsons) is top! The vocals are like any 70's record; really good and harmonious.

The band is a kind of mix between Alan Parsons Project, Eagles, 10CC and Steely Dan but more progressive. The best tracks are Mama Frog and Drink of Water.

I got this album when it first came out cuz "Holdin' on to Yesterday" and "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" got a lot of airplay on our local progressive-minded AM radio station. The album has always intrigued me with its complex and diverse song compositions--some quite proggy, others quite poppy. I always thought its high points, its proggiest points, were a bit like quirky and condensed versions of YES. The songs throughout the album are all of excellent musicianship and compositional quality--in places they may be perhaps even a bit too tricky for their own good--and too YES-like, in others a bit too imitative of some of the pop masters of the late 60s and early 70s.

Five star songs: "Time Waits for No One," Holdin' on to Yesterday," the jazzy, GENTLE GIANT-like "Mama Frog," the medieval folk/THE ASSOCIATION-llike "Make Us All Aware," and the beautiful and emotional CARPENTERS/SIMON AND GARFUNKLE-like "Lover Arrive"

Song on the Breech: "Nice, Nice, Very Nice"

Songs that bring the album down a bit: The Beatles/pre-XTC-like "World Leave Me Alone"; the plodding STYX/PROCUL HARUM/URIAH HEEP-like "Drink of Water"

Still, a four star effort that, in my opinion, contributed something positive to the progressive rock world.

I've had this album for few years, it was the 1978 Warner reissue, then I upgraded to the original on 20th Century with the pyramid gimmick. It seems my attitude towards this album has changed. I had no trouble warming up to their debut. Any fan of crossover prog will enjoy that, but for the longest time on their followup, I felt they overdid themselves, but then I started noticing how the music started to click in. "Cowboy Star" is a rather enjoyable song with elaborate arrangements and strings from Andrew Powell (who also did strings for the Alan Parsons Project, which comes as no surprise as Alan Parsons did engineer this album). "Runnin' Away" is a soft rock ballad, the kind the band did in an attempt to score a hit. ""Harvey" is a nice rock piece, but I think the biggest problem I have with this album is "Danse With Me George". I still find it a bit gimmicky, with all the Chopin quotes, lounge influences, and even flirtation with Latin music really through me off. Now I just get a kick off how utterly ridiculous this song is. For years I was wondering why the song title was spelled "Danse" instead of "Dance", and who was this George they were referring to? Turns out they were referring to George Sand, an author, a lady posing as a man (apparently women in 19th Century France couldn't be authors, so she had to go under an assumed name) who had an affair with Chopin, and the lyrics were on this romance, from the point of view of Chopin. So hence the French spelling of "Danse". "Can't Let a Woman" and "We Need You Too" are rather appropriate closers after hearing the ridiculous "Danse With Me George". Of course most people might only think of Ambrosia as marginally prog, given the hits they scored on easy listening stations, but I still can't see how fans of crossover prog would not enjoy their first two albums. The second one really needed a lot more patience to stick, and I'm glad to finally give it a second go and liking it much more. Their following albums are not prog, apparently. Life Beyond L.A. featured their major hit "How Much I Feel", but obviously that's no surprise they'd head that way, even their first two albums had straightforward songs in pop/rock fashion for hopes of radio airplay. Glad to finally say I finally enjoy their second album, but start with their debut first.

I like this album. Harmonies are definitely the bands strong suit, but this album shows them pushing their sound as far as they can before the pull in the reins on Warner Bros. This album does sound like a typical Alan Parsons Project (get it) - his sonic fingerprints are all over this album. The hooks are strong, and the melodies are catchy. While not essential, "Somewhere I've Never Travelled" is a good album overall, a mediocre progressive record at best. I happen to like Ambrosia's niche in the "Southern California" pop scene (the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac) and for their sound, I think it's mostly a winner.