PENDRAGON

Pendragon's Pure is the last album of my current Pendragon marathon before I check out some other neo-prog bands recommended to me by the community. Now I normally go into these albums blind, but I knew that this album that it was unique among the bunch for taking a somewhat more metallic approach. It didn't take long for the band to make that point, and I think it's a good new approach for the best possible reason: now Barrett's voice has been aging a bit over the last few albums, but this slightly metallic sound fits perfectly with his deeper and raspy take on the Geddy Lee voice. My biggest concern, however, was whether or not the album would switch things up throughout or pretty much stay the same. There was really no way of me knowing, considering that they tried a few different techniques on the last album, Believe, but despite the positive reception some fans still felt alienated. I'm at least expecting the Floydian psychedelics; I'll be sorely disappointed if they don't have a good say in the album's sound.

I didn't get very much of the space rock or electronic synths prominent in the last album, but there are quite a few backing sound effects to make up for it. But I'm not sure how much that really adds to the album, especially when the first two tracks don't fully justify their own length, although the 9-minute Eraserhead certainly had more to work with in 9 minutes while the intro, Indigo, had less to work with in 14 minutes. It was a bit of a breather when the Comatose epic's first part started out with some aquatic production and piano, as well as psychedelic guitars with a faint Hindustani vibe to it. This one goes back to the lush and calming sound that opened up almost every song on The Masquerade Overture, but its aquatic production falls strangely in line with the metallic sound the album's gone for so far. Little things like rain sticks and harps come in after a couple of minutes, and suddenly I'm in the same world that many symphonic prog albums of the 70's brought me in, until they force me into some straight-up metal. This is the wild behavior I was hoping to see, although I was hoping the symphonic sound would last a little longer. At least it handled all of the elements in a beautifully proggy, eclectic and constantly melodic fashion. Pt. 1 might even be their best song.

Pt. 2 goes for a straightforward alternative sound with small bursts of prog seeping through, which I appreciate considering that it's different from the rest of the album and is well-produced and well-performed, basing its second half on the Pink Floyd side of things, focusing on production and atmosphere while maintaining its poppiness. Pt. 3 goes right into the classic softer side of Pendragon from the classic era, but with noisier ambient effects that fit this current album. Altogether, Comatose has become my favorite of the Pendragon epics as a result. The space rock and sci-fi vibes are lived up to with creativity to spare.

So now that the major creative splurge that justifies Pendragon's continuing existence is done, all that's left is The Freak Show and It's Only Me. And I had no idea where either song would go but I hoped it wouldn't lead to sounding like the first two songs because that would just mean there's less variety by the end. The Freak Show goes right into raw metal like something off of a Judas Priest album, and that side hadn't been seen side Pt. 1 of the blatantly diversified Comatose, so I'm fine with a 4-minute metal song, or at least much more metal-infused song, making its way onto the album. Or at least, that's what I thought. The album left that and went back to some standard Pendragon fare after the first thirty seconds. It was all very good for the first minute-and-a-half, and that's when the singing began. How would it hold up? Well, it didn't get back into the metal and the ending was repetitive, so this experiment started well, but didn't end properly. And finally, there's It's Only Me. It started with harmonica, which is fine, but would that be a focus or just another fancy intro to a typical Pendragon song? I'd say the instrumentation outweighs the melodies that Barrett's singing, but the constantly super-mellow vibe was a nice addition to the whole album. Its serenity nearly met GYBE levels for the first 3 1/2 out of the 8 minutes, until it went back to typical Pendragon fare with beautiful instrumentation and production but a vocal melody that needs work.

For the most part, I am VERY pleased with this album. There are flaws, but not enough to knock off a whole half- star. There's a creative splurge here that really works, and its new metallic vibe is a good step forward for the band as it mingles well with the Pendragon sound of the classic age. The epic in the center is probably the best thing they'd done thus far, and I think it would be unfair for me to say that I didn't consider this their best album because of it.

Do you remember the good old days when you had to really dig through the internet for an album to play when you couldn't afford to pay for it because the economy sucked? I do. I dug through Beatles, King Crimson, Prince and Bob Dylan when the studios would pretty much execute anyone who uploaded a song of theirs online. Nowadays, these albums are all on official YT pages, but there are still a select few bands too cheap for it. One of these is Pendragon, apparently, as their album Believe has proven difficult to find.

Pendragon surprised me a little bit when the titular opener was made up of Celtic new age vocals, ambient reverberations and a diverse range of sounds, but the real shocker was when No Place for the Innocent sounded a lot like some modern country-infused alternative rock song you often hear on the radio. It was the farthest thing from Pendragon. Now it was hardly a great song by any means, when told me that this was Pendragon's equivalent to Metallica's Load, being an album where they would try a lot of new tricks. This is later justified by the inclusion of The Wisdom of Solomon, which goes into a lot of tribal instrumentation before acoustic guitar is combined with the guitars you expect to find in Pendragon songs. Now unlike the last one, The Wisdom of Solomon is a kickass song. I actually had to find this one on a recorded top 10 Pendragon songs podcast.

The previous three songs surprised me with a detail I never expected: synths are downgraded. We don't see them in full force until the 21-minute epic, The Wishing Well. Even then, Pt. I is practically a new age track. It's not even that great. Pretty, but not very imaginative. Pt. 2 of this epic is a much more standard Pendragon song with the synths and guitars back in full force and a stronger sense of melody and progression, justifying its seven minutes when pt. 1 couldn't even justify five. Pt. 3 is where they got crazy with it. It steers into some seriously energetic hard rock, which is a pretty cool step to take on a more "art rock" album that showcases new ideas, but what the hell is Barrett doing with his voice? I mean, does he think he can get away with mimicking Steven Tyler? And then there's Pt. 4, which is more rooted in the AOR sound of the first two Pendragon albums. I was wondering if they'd go back to that someday (though not really "hoping," just wondering), and it was a decent return to form, but not exactly prime songwriting. It was closer to a 2000's AOR sound.

Now when we get to Learning Curve, there are some EXTRA Floydian soundscapes, more complex and engrossing than anything they've ever done. True psychedelia. The instrumentation, while switching to rock, keeps in line with the opening psychedelics, thankfully. But there's a huge problem: the vocal melodies are simple, monotonous and boring, and as a result, kind of insulting to the keen instrumentation. And finally, there's the mellow and more synth-driven closer, The Edge of the World. This one does a good job using quiet synths and Floyd guitars to bring your spirit at ease. There are some extra new age touches in the second half that send your brain into overdrive very easily. Honestly, these last four minutes are probably the best part of the album.

I think I'll call this an "art rock" album instead of a "neo-prog" album. I commend Pendragon's new attempts at diversifying. Maybe they overdid it a little as a couple of the tracks are a little dull, but it's largely an interesting and catchy experience. These guys are obvious rockers, and they maximized their love of it on this album, so it didn't end up being a disaster by any means, even if it might've been a major shocker to the fanbase at the time of its release.

So a 67-minute album might seem ambitious at first, but this is Pendragon we're talking about. Their last album was an exercise in cementing a singular signature sound they can take with them. Chances are they attempted to stretch that out over the 67 minutes, meaning the "ambition" could amount to no more than going for a long runtime. I was certain this would be a downgrade from the last two almost equally good predecessors: The Window of Life and The Masquerade Overture. Did Pendragon curse themselves into repeating their style until neo-prog died out?

There are some notable differentiations that are more than welcome in a 67-minute neo-prog album. The extra energy present on track 4, "Not of This World, Pt. 1," is the same kind of energy you'd likely find in power metal. As well, the opener is largely made up of a slow and spacey intro with extra Floydian vibes, which is perfect because they made a point of Pink Floyd influence before, and like I've said before, we probably need more of that in a Genesis-infused genre. But the general style they fully developed on The Masquerade Overture is the real driving force here. There aren't very many differences between the two, and I would say that these melodies are pretty good, but nothing compared to what we got before. To be fair, Not of This World Pt. 3 got kinda boring. But as far as satisfying fans of the last couple albums, this does in fact suffice. The melodies and complex compositions mostly satisfy. They still easily summon that special Pendragon magic that takes your subconscious right into sci-fi versions of Arthurian myths with ease. This is the kind of thing Pendragon fans pay for. In fact, the signature sound is the one thing the band's the best at.

So Pendragon fans should be MORE than satisfied with this album, although I wouldn't consider myself a fan. I've gone through bad discographies as well as good ones, and while I can say I'm happy for the band for finding a sound that works very well, I would still like them to try something new after this. I'd say this is slightly better than The World.

Here I go, right into the one everyone loves. Over the past three albums, Pendragon have shown significant improvements, developing their sound and finally expanding it into a world of magic and myth that real prog demands, especially if you're going to call Genesis an influence. But I'm also a nonconformist, have plenty of outsider opinions of "best albums" by certain acts, and am prepared for a downgrade as well.

So the title track, awkwardly enough, is a bombastic classical piece with plenty of choral singing. Lasting three minutes, it wasn't an amazing piece, but I'm not going to criticize it very much as it IS an intro, after all. The real magic starts with As Good As Gold. The deep-rooted vocal synths and glitter come waltzing right in, thankfully. This is the shortest of the epics, so I decided quickly that it had better set a good standard. Introducing the fully magical experience of Pendragon with a more simple but still catchy melody is the perfect way to go. I imagine many people introduced themselves to Pendragon through this album. This song delivers all the sparkle, the organs, the synths and the absurdities that, I've mentioned before, real prog demands. All of this told me that Pendragon knew who they wanted to be on the last album, which is fine by me. But they still have room for improvement.

But once Paintbox came on, I realized something. This album seems to show the band balancing out the instruments and the effects much more often, creating a dense experience that never detracts from the classical mysticism. This also means the last two tracks are quite a bit the same, making me worry about the diversity factor that made the previous album so good. So I was practically demanding the band to do something different after the midtro, The Pursuit of Excellence. But for the most part, it maintained a constant in the great quality of the music and the general sound. That effectively means that this is Pendragon's Physical it. It determines a specific sound for the band, as Zep frontman Robert Plant said Physical Graffiti did, but this also means the diversity factor that made. In fact, as far as the quality goes, every epic is certainly worth checking out, but it didn't really do anything that "amazed" me until the second half of Guardian of My Soul, the fifth track.

Now here comes the clincher. There are some serious improvements and a couple of valid criticisms for this album, so the big question is... is this better than The Window of Life?

When I wrote my review for The Window of Life, I wrote down that I'd say it was a better album than another neo-prog album I recently heard (for the second time): Dark Matter by IQ, and I would say the same about this. It has much more density to it and just as much personality as The Window of Life, and it's great that they fully developed a sound that works for them. It's PERFECTLY developed, and the fact that they largely justified it with high quality songs makes it more impressive. But... there are no songs I'd give five stars to on this one. I gave at least three to The Window of Life, and criticized it for its last two tracks. So, at the end of the day, I have to go with the album with a couple of their best songs. This album, to me, is in the same league as the last one, but not QUITE on the same LEVEL. Both are 92/100, worthy of the five-star tag here, but only one of them is getting the top slot.

After the major improvement in style and quality over Kowtow, Pendragon's third album, The World, gave me some pretty high hopes for their next albums. Right after finishing The World, I headed right into The Window of Life. The first thing I noticed during the four-minute keyboard intro to The Walls of Babylon was the Floydian influence, bearing a very similar psychedelic guitar sound to their 70's albums. That was a major sigh of relief as so many neo-prog bands, even of the modern day, would rather go for Genesis influence. However, this didn't mean it was anywhere near as good as Floyd, in fact I would even say that it was a minute too long at the lowest. Thankfully, the rest of this song was magical. The combination of guitars and synthesizers was absolutely gorgeous in comparison to past works.

Of course, a part of me was afraid that the opener was the best that the album had to offer, but track 2, Ghosts, quickly proved me wrong. The unique instrumentation and the reliance on pianos and the Latin American influence in the guitars were a nice and calming surprise right before the album goes right into the symphonic vein of prog with some incredible backing effects and instrumentation that sends me right to Oz. THIS is the type of song that I expect from real prog. Even though it follows the accessible synth vein of prog we all know as "neo," this is wide-ranging, mystical, complex in its own outrageous personality and much more impressionable than anything the band had put out before. I honestly believe this is a better song than the opener, and I was considering making it my favorite neo-prog song.

Of course, the challenge had changed the moment Pendragon decided to follow up a neo-prog epic with a symphonic prog epic. Now the challenge was to diversify again. If fanciful behavior was favored over diversity in the end, then at least I got an album where the band tried much harder. I had very little doubt they would pull it off. Breaking the Spell begins with a slow and atmospheric intro, and a part of me was really hoping they wouldn't break out into heavy melodies two minutes in, otherwise it would be knocking off the last track and run the risk of becoming formulaic. Thankfully, it only increased the usage of slower effects and synths, taking further influence from Floyd but still sounding like Pendragon. That's a PERFECT was to continue the album, especially after introducing it with a four-minute solo a bit like this, except this song's much more intriguing. This was the slow epic, obviously, and it maintained that even as it turned into a rock song halfway through. Excellent diversification of prog so far, even if the guitar work isn't really "masterfully" slow or intriguing. It obviously shouldn't be too fast in a song like this, but it's only pretty good.

Next comes the final epic, The Last Man of Earth. It goes right into the medieval influence and starts off calmly, as all of the songs have done so far. I was hoping the medieval influence would be the driving force here, but I guess that's a bit much to expect from a 14-minute epic, so in the end I had to hope it was more interesting than the 26 epic from The World, Queen of Hearts. The sound drove right into a guitar focus after a couple of minutes, but the melodies and instrumentation made a point of hyperactivity pretty quickly while still maintaining constant accessibility, but drove into a lengthy middle section of careful poetry and atmosphere before getting into the hard rock side of things eight minutes in and ending on a calming but epic note. Overall, I'd say this is yet another worthy entry to the album, but it isn't as good as Ghosts.

Now that the epics are over, all we have left are two shorter tracks: a six-minute one and a five-minute one. Interesting way to end an album full of epics. They could've just ended it on the fourth epic and it would be fine, but they didn't, so let's see if we have another "Love and Affection" situation. Nostradamus opens with two minutes of much more packed and interesting effects than other songs have started out before getting to the glitter and the poetry. It's easy to get lost in this, however, being unique and beautiful while you can just sit and absorb the lyrics alone before the guitars kick in. Of course, this is also telling me it's a shorter version of The Last Man on Earth. It progresses a bit like that song. This also means the song could've been a couple minutes longer. In comparison to all the epics, it feels like this song wasn't fully developed to meet the magic of the instrumentation. And finally, there's Am I Really Losing You, which steers much closer to the AOR side of things. Now since that's a key part of their history, I'm not complaining about that. But it bears none of the playfulness of the rest of the album, and feels very simple. So in the end, we really DO have a Love and Affection situation.

Other than the finale, I am 100% pleased with the new direction they took. They came, they saw, they knocked it out of the park by combining their standard neo=prog sound with the astral atmos of Floyd and the melodic charms of Yes. I would even go as far as to say that this is a better album than IQ's Dark Matter, being more outlandish at times and boasting about the concept of creativity without ever losing the personal sound that the band has developed from The Window of Life. This wasn't some cheap neo-prog band trying to rip off either Genesis or Marillion or even Floyd. This was a band that cemented their OWN sound. This is Pendragon.

Three albums into their career, this is where Pendragon seem to be getting their act together, or at least, this is what I envisioned them sounding like. For the most part, I was pleased. The production is clear and simple, not relying on reverb to amplify the synths. We get exactly what we pay for: a rock band performance. The songwriting finally brings some balance to the prog with the radio behavior, allowing the band room to really explore this new sound. When it gets a little more fanciful during the middle section, it shines much more. Shane and Prayer, ironically, were the more artistic songs while the prog epics were more focused on being epics rather than instrumental showcases. This also means that the 22-minute epic Queen of Hearts, while fine, is less interesting than everything that came before. I was hoping for a real groundbreaker in that sense, but it seems that while the band has mastered the basics of the sound and production that may identify them, they haven't QUITE mastered the balance they need to stand out from Marillion. Well, at least the singer's deeper-Geddy Lee voice helps. Overall, this is the best of the first three Pendragon albums, and judging from the growth from their AOR predecessor, Kowtow, they've got more growing to do and will likely do it in the fourth album.

Checking out all of the negative reception this album gets, I figured there were either three possibilities:

1. The prog compositions are tired and familiar. 2. It's too conventional and poppy to be prog. 3. It's a little bit of both.

It was 3.

These guys got a live album one year after their debut where they played the album with some other songs, and then they degraded to this? I'm wondering if it was the idea of getting popular that lead to it. There was really nothing that intriguing or interesting about the album until it scratched the surface of prog in the second half. And even then, most of the AOR and pop songs were pretty standard for that genre as well, using overproduced reverb to do the job. Thankfully, as people say, they would get their neo-prog back in full force on the next album, because I can't even call this one neo-prog. I just can't.

So I need another neo-prog band to check out as the recommendation for Unitopia largely didn't cut the genre tag. To keep things organized, I often go back to the debut of a band I check out and work my way through their catalog. In this case, it's Pendragon, one I've been curious about since I started getting into neo-prog for the second time in the twelve years I've been "albuming." So, starting with The Jewel.

Because I wanted this study to be as historically accurate as possible, I went with the original 1985 tracklist. I was certainly not surprised by the synth-driven AOR of the opener, Higher Circles, but it was ultimately too short to develop itself properly, even as an AOR song, and it made me worry that the neo-prog tag on this debut was an inaccuracy by fans. Thankfully, The Pleasure of Hope immediately fit that bill that's been heavily mapped out in my mind by Marillion and IQ. This track did a good job maintaining itself as a prog song for the short runtime, but I still found myself wishing it was longer. Now a six-minute song like Leviathan, that was much more like it. Rhythmically, the song succeeded in all the areas Higher Circles failed. Of course, this also tells me that it was a bad choice to introduce the album with Higher Circles, which doesn't really set a proper standard for the rest of the album to follow.

So it seems that the rest of the album shows the band continuing to follow it up with the standard set by The Pleasure of Hope, the second track, especially where the epics like Circus are concerned. In fact, after the second, epics are all that's left. So technically, the entire second half follows in the vein of track three, Leviathan, which itself was an expansion on the prog sound driven by The Pleasure of Hope. I was expecting at least one more AOR song, but in the end, this debut's greatest flaw is that the opener is extraordinarily out of place. If I had to pick a favorite track, I suppose I'd choose Circus because it's glittering synths make it sound more magical. I guess that seems easier to decide when the next track, Oh Divineo, is much less interesting than Circus, as well as the ten minute Black Knight which still manages to be a better experience than the previous track, but is much more standard of an epic than Circus.

For the most part, this is what I picture neo-prog actually HAVING to sound like. Since this debut came out in the very early stages of the genre, I wouldn't consider calling this "generic neo-prog," especially since Marillion, IMO, had trouble balancing out the prog rock wi.th the pop rock in that vein. But as far as songwriting goes, it mostly sets the standard for a good album to follow without every breaking real ground.

I have a bias towards Pendragon for various reasons, so keep some salt, but this album is a jewel deserving of recognition for representing an era of Pendragon just on its own: they have The Jewel, then the trilogy World-not of this world, then the period of transition Believe-Passion, and lastly the 2 last albums. The Jewel stands out as a unique piece, a proto-Pendragon. Some of the tracks, notably Higher Circles, have that playful, joyous vibe that you'll find in The World as well; thoughout the tracks there is some garage vibe as well, and the album is not *that* dissimilar to the next album Kowtow. But already with The Pleasure Of Hope we have a playful vibe that goes beyond what the simple Higher Circles offered, with very good signature guitar notes (already giving us a touch of next years' Pendragon), simple but pleasing chorus chanting the lines: it's not the most original and profound thing, but I really appreciate it, you really spend some good time there. That's really what I'd want to highlight with this album, it's real positive energy, with some mystery veiled within it, that has not yet blossomed, some potential you can feel already, some nostalgy and romantic feelings throughout Alaska. - Alaska, probably the best piece of the album. Which would lie at the heart of a 3/5 album. Yet, there is another piece in this album, which pushes it to 4/5 stars. It even belongs to me to the top 10 of prog songs all bands considered. I'm cheating a bit, because although it's a track of this album, it's not in the version of the album. It's The Black Knight. Don't take the album's rendering, nor from live, trust me and go listen to the BBC session, available on YouTube. Believe me, it's one of the greatest pieces ever made. You'll understand why Tommy Vance was impressed by it and it really fueled the beginning of their career.

I have a very special relationship with Pendragon. They're actually the band that introduced me to neo prog, and prog. Very late actually - it was the Men who climb mountains, that remains to this day a benchmark for me of what prog can bring (leaving aside my bias for that album...and for Pendragon in general...). I was thus very disappointed by their brand new Love over fear, and it's a real mystery why it's considered their best one in here, but I guess my bias shows, I expected a lot and could only be disappointed. By Kowtow, I wouldn't say I was disappointed, it's an old album (several years older than me!!), when Pendragon was still searching their style. It's just an intriguing moment of their career that one that sees themself as a fan really should listen to just for the discovery, and to better understand Pendragon journey. Kowtow came rafter The Jewel, which to me is an underrated...jewel - not as good as some of what they did next, but still a very good album with a few excellent tracks, at the very least The Black Knight, especially in the BBC session version (you can find it on YouTube). Both albums are somewhat garage, though not in the same way. The Jewel offered some atmospheric and melodic pieces. Kowtow is... well, it looks more like a sort of balladish pop rock, something somewhat close to what BelIeve does (but BelIeve does it better). But I'm not informing anyone, this has been well remarked already by a lot of people. A few tracks are actually pretty good: The Haunting and Total Recall. I Walk the Rope is quite agreeable, though simple and rather forgettable - it seems to kinda try to be catchy.