UNREST

Legend was a very mature debut album with slight Canterbury leanings that were right up my alley, the sophomore effort, however, just seems to delve further in what I considered Legend's few flaws. These few flaws that Henry Cow's debut had were the pure experimental and free jazz parts that make no sense to me. Though, I did title this review "Half Great.." for a reason.

That reason is the opener, which is, unfortunately, short but really enjoyable if you've enjoyed the quirkiness but still listenable stuff from Legend. Then there's 'Half Asleep; Half Awake', another tune I really like, some really fine piano playing, and the brass althrough is splendid.

The third track, 'Ruins', begins strong with Henry Cow's complexity at full steam, though after that it gets very avant-garde, nothing really interesting, the ocassional xylophone on that mid-section reminds me of Koenjihyakkei. So, half-great.

'Deluge' and 'Solemn Music' are the last tracks that I would consider listenable from Unrest, though not great by any means. The rest of the album is annoying, most of it I wouldn't consider music.

Damn Henry Cow! This could have been another fantastic album, but no, they decided to write 26 minutes of music, which only 16 minutes of those are really worthwhile, and 14 minutes of nothing.

3 stars: if you liked Legend, you should get this, if only for the worthy half.

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