BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST

Barclay James Harvest had very good albuns through all the seventies, but I would say it is the best example of progressive rock. They have some prog tracks here and there, but most of the time it is the exception, not the norm.

The first album might be the most interesting from a prog point of view because here we are talking about an album recorded in 1970, where most of the future major prog acts were not still that different from what BJH was doing at the time: a mix of psychedelia, rock with orchestral arrangements, with folk elements and a just few longer and more complex songs.

The real highlight here is the classically-inspired 12-minute song, Dark Now My Sky, with great piano, guitar and orchestral arrangements, different parts and it is great enough to be considered one of the early "prog classics". Interestingly enough, in the CD with the bonus tracks, you have another version of the same song, a organ-driven ballad with an extra verse that was removed from the lengthy epic.

As for the other songs, there are two psychedelic guitar-driven songs (Taking Some Time On and Good Love Child), two ballads reminiscent from their earlier singles, with some-acoustic pastoral sounds complimented by mellotron or strings (Mother Dear and The Iron Maiden), and two "symphonic rock" songs, either keyboard-based (And The Sun Will Never Shine) or with heavy orchestral arrangements (When The World Was Woken). None of the songs are bad, and the best two are probably the closest to prog (And the Sun Will Never Shine and When the World Was Woken) since, though their structure is pretty straightforward, they have better arrangements and longer instrumental parts.

Whoever gets the edition with bonus tracks will get a nice collection of tunes, with ballads, pastoral and folkish songs. There are but a few hints of what the band would become in the seventies, but there are quite a few interesting tunes. My favorites are Eden Unobtainable (with a mellotron solo), Night, Pools of Blue and Dark Now My Sky.

It might not be the more accomplished BJH album, since it doesn't have the most recognizable songs, nor the hits, but BJH never gets "proggier" than that. For me, it is one of their best albums, although, till Gone to Earth, you can't go wrong with BJH if you like 70s music with good playing, good mellodies, lush keyboard and orchestral arrangements.