PRE

Quite interesting album by this unknown band from Kentucky, who recorded this LP in 1973, but did not released it at the time. They soon broke up after this and the CD only saw the light of day more than twenty years after, in 1994. The first thing that strike me was the pristine sound of the CD, which enhances the performances very much. The label did a very nice job with the original tapes, I guess. But it is also easy to say why Pre was not put in the market in 1973: their sound is way too derivative. While the musicians are very good and the decent songwriting is not bad at all, they still had to work on it a little longer if they really wanted to get as far as they tried to here.

Pre is one of the many bands influenced at the time by two of the biggest groups at the period: Yes and Led Zeppelin (plus hints of Genesis and Uriah Heep here and there too). So the stakes were really high. And while the band had the chops to play the symphonic prog so few could master, they failed miserably to produce anything with a hint of personality here. Most of the songs are carbon copies of Yes around the time of Time And A Word and The Yes Album, but there are also, oddly enough, some parts that spring from Houses Of The Holy too (Who´s Laughing Now is pure acoustic Led Zeppelin, singer Alfred Collinsworth is even imitating Plant´s wailing and vocal mannerisms). But most of the time this band wanted so badly to be Yes all the way (and, yes, Collinsworth tries hard to be Jon Anderson).

Although I don´t mind that much for originality, a certain degree of a personal identity is necessary to anyone to stand out from the crowd. And this band had none. I guess with time and experience they could and would eventually outgrow their influences bringing out something new and/or exciting, since they were obviously skillful musicians and had the right influences. But, alas, that was not to be.

What is more interesting is that nowadays, with most of the great bands that inspired them long gone, the music here is far more interesting than it would have been during the 70´s. And I guess that any not too demanding classic prog fan will enjoy this album.

Rating: something between 2,5 and 3 stars. Nice, but clearly for the ones that love early 70´s symphonic prog and don´t mind the lack of personality.