GRACIOUS !

More on the psychedelic/experimental side than the prog side, Gracious debut is a mixed bag of what has been done during the late sixties and early seventies. It is one of those ecletic mixes of songs that could only be made during those days were recording companies and producers were willing to let the bands record their ideas without much constraint.

If, to a certain degree, it was a great thing for artists willing to explore their creativity, on the other hand you have a very unfocused effort where the best and the worst ideas are sometimes mixed in the same song and the overall result is good, but not great.

There are some parts that are amazing, like the intro of Heaven, with ethereal mellotron. There are others that are disjointed, parts of Hell and The Dream, songs that mix psychedelic, baroque pop and even long classical quotes (in the case of the latter) or Zappaesque spoken parts (the former).

There classically influenced passages and direct quotations, and the prevalence of keyboard instrumentos in the sound help giving a more symphonic feel to the album, but overall I'd classify if more as psychedelic weirdness than anything else, which is very good, of course, but not exactly the "lost" progressive gem one would expect. They'd get better and more focused on the following album, unfortunately their last before disbanding.

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