ANGEL DUST

Make that 3.75 stars. I recently picked up this LP and was initially enthused. Upon observing the sparse and lukewarm review treatment this album has garnered on PA, I was hoping to be more favorable. I can't help gushing a bit. Prog., my first musical love as a teen, has conquered my heart in the last year, after having greatly shared it over the years with other less worthy musical forms. I am not finicky and don't see why I should be. Prog. seems to nourish the true beauty that moves my soul. Yet, I have to be fair to the material at hand here. Upon the very close listen I give anything I review, blemishes aplenty have come to light.

Largely I am treating this album in consecutive order of the tracks. That's because I believe each song is a building block of an overriding parable that intends to spread a spiritual message at the heart of this band's existence. The first track "Babylon" offers a lush, sweeping, inspired melody lovingly painted with acoustic guitar, sax and other instruments. The song evolves into a meditational dreamscape for the last couple minutes, fitting with the spiritual lyrical theme. The lead singer ? the band claims two alternates ? is always appealing and expressive. (The same two singers are claimed for the follow up album, Another Trip to Earth. Curiously there I found the vocals obnoxious ? not sure which singer, and didn't buy the LP because of it.)

The second track "First Stone in a Pyramid" unfolds soothing and mellow, a bit reminiscent of the Moody Blues. Flute and acoustic guitar really build it into a terrific sound collage. With the third track, the ethereal mood intensifies. This song, "You and the Wind" harbors the all the poignancy and folk finery of the band's fellow Illinoisans HP Lovecraft. There's windchimes, something autoharp-like and a crying and babbling baby in the background. It would be hard to believe that Gabriel Bondage wasn't well aware of Lovecraft.

"Take my Eyes" is the first track to break the hazy spell this album had me under for about twelve minutes. This radio-friendly song is sugar-coated. Piano, strings and churchy guitar lend a feeling of excess to a mood that already seems preachy. The theistic overtones to this band and album usually stay in check and seem part and parcel of the more general and quite enchanting uplift, now rudely interrupted. The shift to the next track "Ladies and Gentlemen" very slowly moves the album back to a cool place. The song starts a bit trite and Good-Newsy but after a flute interlude and spoken word in the background, it floats to the acid-soaked slice of heaven laid out at album start.

"Bondage," the next chapter in the trip, is a long multi-part song that gets ambitious and a bit experimental with its moody sax and wah-wah guitar. The key takes a dramatic turn perhaps to the harmonic or Hungarian minor. Strategically placed synthesizer heightens. Trouble is the sax is always a little contrived, as if to accompany a silly skit. To me sax is a hard instrument to integrate into rock anyways. Many mishaps have occurred with it, King Crimson being one of the few bands to have mastered its use in heavy music.

Apparently "Bondage" is supposed to set a frightening stage ? the title suggests so much, perhaps a state to be overcome by the album's spiritual prescription. Screams can be heard in the middle. They and the robust vocal to follow, along with special effects and heavy bass for a time, all but drown out the unfortunately continued sax serenade. The soloing sax does manage to wreck things a minute or two, but then guitar and synthesizer rescue the composition. Sadly no true jam with these instruments ensues. The song ends pretty abruptly. This sets up the next song "Island" for a rocky journey. Luckily the track is able to snap out of the poor framing initially provided it. This occurs by means of a funky flute and equally funky vocal. Rhythm here is superb. A certain inexplicable weirdness pervades this neat tune.

Unfortunately the hokey "Sing me a Song" is placed last, in the position where the band's final message should be forcefully driven home. This steals focus from the band's directed mission that is "Angel Dust." Things ends in a tenuous state.