IN THE LAND OF GREY AND PINK

I really really like this album, but I can't see it as the masterpiece that everyone say. I'm going to start with the things I love about In the Land of Grey and Pink. Firstly, the bass work of Richard Sinclair is one of the best I have heard in my life. It may not be as flashy as Chris Squire, nor as recognizable as Roger Waters, but indeed his basslines are what carry the songs forward. They are very catchy but never stop being the solid foundation of the song alongside the drums, which is something that many playful bassists tend to forget. In the performing department the other outstanding musician is David Sinclair, a terrific keyboardist and one of the most underrated.

They truly shine in my two favorite songs from the bunch. The first being "Winter Wine", a mix between the folk magic from Jethro Tull and the jazz softness from Camel, and the monstruous suite "Nine Feet Underground". The later is truly a marvelous piece, which was intended to be an instrumental song for David to show off. Well, objective accomplished, as the keyboard solos in this one are out from this world. On the other hand, I don't really like that much the other songs from the album. "Golf Girl" and "In the Land of Grey and Pink" are nice and fun, but they are really simple. And "Love to Love You" doesn't do it for me at all, and his 60s pop patterns take me out of the experience.

The other things I don't really enjoy that much from this albums are the vocals and the guitars. Although I consider Richard an excellent bassist I believe him to be a very mediocre vocalist. He doesn't have the virtuous high pitched vocals of Jon Anderson, nor the theatrics of Peter Gabriel, nor the warm tone of Greg Lake or Ian Anderson, so he falls a little on no man's land. He's not bad, but he's nothing really special either and a better vocalist would have benefited the album a lot. The same could be said about the guitars, which are not bad in itself but are a little absent at times (with too much prominence of the keyboards, while I like a combination of both) and nothing that interesting when present.

I still really enjoy this album every time I listen to it, but I can't put it on the same level of things such as Close to the Edge, Wish You Were Here, Thick As a Brick or Foxtrot. So I believe that 4 stars is the perfect rating for In the Land of Grey and Pink.