IN TRANSIT

Saga

Crossover Prog

3.72 | 119 ratings

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SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator
Symphonic Team

A brief but solid case

Hearing this classic live album for the first time after having reviewed all the studio albums by Saga (with the sole exception of Steel Umbrellas that I haven't managed to find yet) was a very pleasant surprise. Even though this live album fails to include all of the best and most progressive songs from Saga's first four studio albums, it does succeed in leaving out the bad ones that plagued some of those albums. The set list here is admittedly very short, but runs like something of a greatest hits collection with such all-time Saga classics as Don't Be Late, Humble Stance, Wind Him Up, How Long and On The Loose. Indeed, all of the eight songs featured on this live recording (the cleverly titled A Brief Case is a short drum solo) are just simply great and these live recordings are consistently better than their studio counterparts. No Regrets is the only ballad included here and it is a rather untypical Saga song as it does not have Michael Sadler on lead vocals but Jim Gilmour who also plays the clarinet in the song.

What makes this live album stand out is that compared to the studio versions, there is more energy, passion and punch in these live versions. The band is simply on fire here! The recording is very polished and if it wasn't for the very discrete audience noise, one could easily mistake this for a studio recording. I'm reminded slightly of Judas Priest's controversial Unleashed In The East live album. As I mentioned above, these songs are perhaps not the most progressive songs from the first four Saga albums, but I would still say that In Transit is a very good introduction to early Saga and generally better than the studio albums from which the selections were taken.

Highly recommended!

SouthSideoftheSky | 4/5 | 2011-8-27

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