XII

On this record and BJH went full pop. And thay quite pull it off. The majority of the album is intelligent pop and nowhere the band is persuaded to jump the disco or punk bandwagon. If anything this record sounds the most like Queen, they ever did. Maybe because of the emphasis on piano and guitar.

The songs are shorter, wich means there are more songs to enjoy. It's a playful album with a variety of styles, from their trademark symphonic pop (Berlin, Nova Lepidoptera, In Search of England), to more boogie/rock (Turning in Circles, Loving is Easy). There's less mellotron and epic arrangments (except for the Woolly-songs).

This would be the last album with Woolly on keyboards and vocals, who always the most progressive rock songwriter of the band. He delivers two songs (Harbour, In Search of England) wich are nice but not as great as his older symphonic epics.

As usual John Lees delivers the best songs, his intelligent lyrics and diverse arranging (he even ventures into spacerock with Nova Lepidoptera or full on boogierock on a couple of tracks) make sure the album is diverse and although the endresult is kind of classic rock/pop, the album still holds strong. I can imagine John really enjoyed writing and recording this album. Where Gone to Earth was more a Holroyd-influenced record, XII was more a John Lees-affair. Hence the emphasis on guitar. Even the Holroyd-songs have some great guitarwork.

To me, this is their last complete masterpiece. On future releases there are some great song, but as a whole XII is the is last fully enjoyable BJH-release. Although overshadowed by Gone to Earth (Wich was a massive hit)

Not essential for progrock-enthousiasts, but essential for BJH-enthousiasts. And to be honest: anyone should at least give it a try, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with this collection of songs.