THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

I really love Audience debut album for it´s raw and unpolished style, Audience second album Friend's Friend's Friend is a transitional album as it is a teaser showing what Audience would become on this their third album. I was not too impressed with that one, but this one is a little better. The debut is my favorite though and the one I will recommend.

House on the Hill is driven by Howard Werth´s voice and Keith Gemmell´s flute and sax playing. This was also the concept on previous releases. Howard Werth has a very powerful voice and IMO he is a fantastic vocalist. Likewise Keith Gemmell is a great wind and brass player.

The songs are very much in the same vein as on Friend's Friend's Friend, just a notch better composed. A song like Jackdaw is very powerful to my ears while there are other songs that are a bit trivial. All songs are performed flawlessly of course as these are competent musicians. I must admit to being a bit disappointed asI feel the album is pretty average. Especially the title track is disappointing to me. I heard the version that is a bonus track on the debut and it´s a great song. Here it is extended with a sax solo and a Howard Werth that doesn´t sound as convinsing as on the debut bonus track.

My conclusion is that allthough this is a good rock/ prog album, it never reaches excellent and I will have to give this one 3 stars and recommend Audience fantastic debut instead. This one is better than Friend's Friend's Friend though.

Share this AUDIENCE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to UMUR
• Report this review (#157695)
• Buy AUDIENCE music online with PA partners
• Show all AUDIENCE MP3/Stream
• Go to AUDIENCE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to The House on the Hill page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for AUDIENCE related discussions