3

After Focus' great second album, Moving Waves, this was a bit of a letdown. While there are some good tracks, there is nothing anywhere near as spectacular as Eruption. This album has a jazzier feel to it, similar at times to Soft Machine's fusion era.

There are few lyrics on the album (at least on mine, the 1988 I.R.S. CD, which does not include House Of The King, and is plagued by a miserably bad mix), and where there are lyrics, they are pointless, like where Thijs Van Leer constantly repeats the title is the otherwise nice Round Goes The Gossip.

The two long songs, Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers and Anonymus Two are mostly jams. The guitar solos are great, but the bass solo is weak, and the drum solo goes on way too long (don't they always?).

So this was a nice album at the time of it's original release, but it doesn't seem to have held up over the dacades since.

2.5 stars