GOING FOR A SONG

Decent vocal harmonies on this one, even if they do sound more like the Beatles than they do a Danish band. Otherwise this isn’t much of a prog album, it’s closer to soft rock with a decidedly American country feel to it. If you’re familiar with Home or Laurie Wisefield-era Wishbone Ash you get the idea what this sounds like (and wasn’t Wisefield in both of those bands?). The mandolin parts just serve to reinforce rather than take away from this impression.

There’s an interesting use of a sitar here for rhythm, but since it isn’t all that prominent for the most part the novelty is largely lost unless you listen closely. And the organ is woefully underused in my opinion, getting drowned out by an unusually loud bass line and the twin (sometimes three) guitars.

I can’t say there’s even a single standout track on this album. I’ve only heard bits of the band’s first two albums in the form of streamed samples, but what I’ve heard sounded a lot more artistic and varied than anything here. I guess this was the band’s swan song, and it’s a pretty tepid one. A couple tracks like “Sailor” and “Roger and Out” are actually bad, with awkward guitar riffs and forced harmonies that seem to be off-key for the most part.

There aren’t many redeeming qualities here, and unless you're one of those people who thought Wishbone Ash’s ‘Twin Barrels Burning’ was a masterpiece you probably won’t get into this album much. I may hunt down one of the band’s first two albums just because they were apparently much better than this one, but I have to say that unless you are a fan of the band already this album won’t convert you into one. And that is the definition of a two star album. ‘Nuff said.

peace