LAST FLIGHT

The Vietnamese-French combination known as TAI PHONG was cursed by their early success due largely to the single "Sister Jane" from their first album. While it was an effective pop ballad with progressive arrangements and sold very well, it insisted upon itself for the next few years, with several mediocre clones appearing on 45 and the "Windows" album, resulting in a musical schism between these and their symphonic progressive epics. By the time of the aptly titled "Last Flight", the band had lost their ability to write and perform effectively in both realms. Instead we are subject to undistinguished late 1970s rock reminiscent of SUPERTRAMP, CITY BOY or KAYAK. Through the course of this thankfully brief exercise, a few passages stand out here and there, particularly on the two longest tracks, courtesy of Michel Gaucher's tenor saxophone and Pascal Wuthrich's jazzy piano, but the overall effort is rather unrewarding. As for the shorter tracks, well, they aren't "Sister Jane" wannabes but are otherwise just as banal, with the best probably being the Asian sounding "Thirteen Space" or the sappy closer describing the birth of the singer's daughter in somewhat cloying and egotistical terms that are thankfully eclipsed by the overall novelty of the perspective. Like many swan songs from the time period. "Last Flight" was ultimately not the last word by the band, but it signaled their crash landing as a commercially viable band, while prog fans won't salvage much from the wreckage.