DUKE

Certainly the best album of the post-Hackett, 3-man band years. And although the album contains some soft ballads, it still is a quite masterful progressive rock album. Highlights are the songs included in the Duke Suite ('Behind the Lines', 'Duchess', 'Guide Vocal', 'Turn It On Again', 'Duke's Travels/Duke's End'), which were originally planned to be one multi-section 30-min epic song, but instead were divided up throughout the album. But it all works here, and the 'Duke's Travels/End' make a powerful album closer, reminiscent of their best progressive work. Even the hit single 'Misunderstanding' is a great 'pop' song, and 'Turn It On Again' is a rousing rocker. I would have been fine with the band continuing to include a couple of pop/rock hits like these per album, as long as the overall album also continued to provide good prog and the kind of depth and musicianship present here, but that was not to be on future albums. Still, a quite great album.