BRUFORD: GRADUALLY GOING TORNADO

To start, this is a Bruford album, which means good music made with integrity and skill. On the negative side, there's the vocals, and Bill's decision to to take a back seat to the bass. This album is not as strong as Bill's first two, but they were brilliant. 3½ stars, because several tracks qualify as an "excellent addition to a prog collection".

At first, I figured that Berlin was a weak vocalist, but there are times when he sounds fine. Why did the engineer not give his voice more love at the mixing desk? Why did JB not do extra takes when some notes were clearly out of tune? At times, his voice reminds me of Eno's, but Eno always had a lot of help from the desk. Such details can make a world of difference, especially with vocals.

The first two tunes, Age of Reason and Gothic 17 are straight up prog, not fusion, with thoughtful lyrics and enough ear worms to stay in my head for days. Age of Reason is good and Goth 17 is brilliant. Gothic 17 has a great arrangement and superb playing, including gorgeous cello by Henry Cow's Georgia Born.

Joe Frazier is Jeff Berlin's "Jaco piece". He's not far off, either. One of the best bassists around. A pretty cool fusion track.

QED is a long piece, like a cross between Weather Report and the Canterbury scene, with some deadly playing by all members, especially Dave Stewart and Mr Anonymous Clark. It's not all that memorable, but interesting and tasty.

Sliding Door returns to UK-ish poppy prog. A good track with entertaining lyrics, although some of the riffs do not make my ears happy. Killin' dramatic refrain in the middle, though.

Palewell Park. Bill sits out and leaves the rest of the band to play this fairly typical jazz ballad. I prefer BB's crazy stuff to his "admirable restraint", but maybe that's just me.

Plans for J.D is a pop tune. Catchy melody, neat guitar by The Anonymous One, amusing lyrics, with a quirky delivery. Why were the vocals served up so dry? If you are going to add some "oohs" and "doo doos" in the chorus, the least you can do is add some subtle effects to help a second-string vocalist keep up with such a stellar group of accompanists.

Land's End. The 10-min epic ... but somehow the start of it reminded me of Guns n Roses! Thankfully, the melodies and harmonies evolve from there. There's nothing new on this one, and it's not all that appealing or memorable by BB's lofty standards. Gob-smacking bass, as usual, and a couple of hero drum fills but, wow, Bill was super-disciplined on this session. Too disciplined IMO. I always liked BB best when he was flamboyant and creative, especially his sneaky detials.

It's no surprise BB moved on to Crimson and Earthworks, because album gives a sense that he'd drawn most of the good stuff from this band and was running out of ideas. No matter, the first two albums, the live album and some of this one are brilliant. All musicians involved can take a bow.