DUKE

I've seen a decent amount of prog. I've diven deep into the prog of King Crimson, Yes, Emerson, Lake, And Palmer, Jethro Tull, The Mars Volta, Van Der Graaf Generator, Pink Floyd, Rush, Camel, Gentle Giant, Procol Harum, and my favorite of all of them, Genesis. I started getting into their 80's stuff in early 2018, and in the middle of the year, my dad and I were starting to learn of Duke. This one album caused me to dive deep into a genre that I never knew existed until now, and I'm so glad I know of it.

Behind The Lines is my favorite track on the album. It's a perfect opener for this album. Duchess is a phenomenal song to combo with it. The long intro leading to Phil's screaming voice works extremely well for this tune. Guide Vocal is a very simple yet beautiful lyrical gem. Man Of Our Times is one of the negatives of the album for me. It's just a few lines repeating over and over again with no purpose. Misunderstanding is a great song. Whenever you hear this song on the radio after listening to some Rush, it's not bad. This album has made me remember how good this song actually is. It's very simple, but everything in it is very precise. The riff has a great yet simple pattern in it. Heathaze is just beautiful. Phil puts out one of his best performances on the album. His voice is perfectly balanced within everything going on around him. I've always loved the rhythm in Turn It On Again since before I knew what prog was. The changes in time signature aren't very noticeable, which I find pretty cool. Alone Tonight is an easy one to sing along to. Easy hook to catch onto with some nice chord progressions in between. Cul-De-Sac is the first prog song that blew my mind because of the chords within it. Nowadays, it seems more normal to me, but I still love it the same. I love the guitar and bass in this song. They fill everything that they need to, and I love when that happens in a song like this. When the key changes to E, I smile every single time. Please Don't Ask is a pretty good tune, but it mainly reminds me of a song by Bread. Duke's Travels is a very fun instrumental track, and Duke's End is a nice conclusion to this album.

All in all, this is a great album. It's not even close to my favorite prog album, but it's a really good one. It's not too complicated throughout, but lots of cool stuff happens in every single song. I just love this album.