DUKE

Duke is their last masterpiece. Their last album of theirs where they managed to keep their 70's style sound (on half the CD, though). However, their non-symphonic prog material on this album turns out to be their best attempt at pop music. Unlike their later pop albums, they managed to make their pop songs both creative and catchy, and they managed to at least try and write some interesting lyrics for their pop songs on here (look at Turn it on Again). The interesting thing about this album, though is that they manage to strike a balance between their 70's symphonic material and their 80's pop material. With full-out prog assault on songs like Duke's Travels/Duke's end and Man of our Times, and with catchy pop tunes like Misunderstanding and Please Don't ask. Hell, even some of their songs turn out to a mix of prog and pop, for example Duchess, Behind the Lines, and even Turn It on Again managed to dabble in both territories (interesting lyrics, 13/8 time signature). Guide Vocal was also very good, too, I love Phil Collin's vocals on that song...

On an interesting side note, Duke is a loose concept album, about people who are on the downturn of their career with their fans and critics abandoning them, which would happen not very long after this album. Perhaps they were forecasting their near future? We may never know, but they made a damn good forecast. Soon after this album, they didn't make anything that equates to this, as they would lose all of their creativity and originality for some radioplay and attention. What a shame...

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