EXPERIMENTS IN MASS APPEAL

Roundabout is a very well known song. It hit the top 20 in the '70s. Show it to a non-prog fan, and you don't have to explain it to them (well, maybe the lyrics). They don't have to have a love of the genre to love the track. Yet it is inherently progressive ... even if a fan of progressive music doesn't like the song, nobody would argue that it's not progressive. It's an iconic song by one of prog's most iconic bands.

Listening to the album, I get the feeling that Gem Godfrey thought, "Why can't all prog be like Roundabout? Why can't I play it around my friends and not fear the accusation of listening to really weird / unlistenable music?"

Perhaps Roundabout wasn't the song that specifically sparked the move to make music in this direction. But the feeling on this album definitely matches the feel of that song - hard rocking, catchy music that's a little bit more than that, but that I feel perfectly comfortable playing around my friends.

All the ingredients for a neo prog album are here, from the somewhat heavy electric guitars to the keyboards. But where many other Neo prog albums try to sound like Genesis or another 70s band, Frost* is using these ingredients to really energise you. To lodge itself in your brain and not let go. And at this, it succeeds. That being said, this album has its quiet moments too, like Saline and You/I. My favorite tracks off of this album include Pocket Sun, Toys, and Dear Dead Days.

Overall, 4 stars - a great album to put on pretty much any time.