FRIEND'S FRIEND'S FRIEND

I won't get into the discussion whether Audience should be considered a "real Prog" band whatever this should mean but no matter how one might classify them this band certainly has to be considered a rather unique one and anyway it's one of all-time fav ones since my youngest days. The combination of Howard Werth's vocals which might be admittedly not everyone's "cup of tea" and Keith Gemmell's versatile use of sax, flute and clarinet had been just immediately highly fascinating for me when I listened to this group the very first time some 30 years ago. This one and its more famous follow-up were certainly their two outstanding works but even if their first and their last album "Lunch" were considerably more light-weighted I wouldn't call them complete failures and still consider them good and highly enjoyable records. All the tracks on this album are just equally great although it's true that the instrumental "Ebony Variations" with its playful jazzy renditions of a classical theme and Gemmel's really virtuoso clarinet play doesn't fit quite well to the rest but nonetheless this piece is an excellent one as well. Absolute highlights are of course "Raid" being with almost 9 minutes by far longest track here with an awesome sax solo and the slightly weird sounding "Priestess" with great psychedelic flute play but as said already none of the other shorter tracks really drops down in anyway. This album had been a really unique blend of folk, jazz, psychedelic and rock elements and should be considered for sure an essential one in any Prog collection. 4 ½ stars really!!