HARMONIUM

The first Harmonium album and by anyone's standards as debut albums go this is a great start and the band went on leaps and bounds for their second album 'Si On Avait Besoin D'une Cinquieme Saison' which rightly so is one of the highest rated Prog albums of all time.

The eight compositions that make this album are all beautifully crafted works, gentle and relaxing. Very very easy on the ear. Sung with tenderness too. But I can't rate this too highly for a couple of reasons.

Part of it is my own fault for not paying attention in French classes enough at school so I haven't marked it down for that but it could play a part in other peoples reviews. My main problem is there is a substantial lack of musical diversity on the album. Don't get me wrong I love the acoustic sound they have but a whole 42 minutes of it (aside from the fleeting visit from a fluglehorn and the use of a metronome on 'Attends-Moi') is just dull.

Also, the general structure of the album and songs doesn't really strike me as Prog. It's definitely not Symphonic Prog as the tag atop this page says, Prog-Folk would be more accurate but Folk even more so.

Of course Harmonium would go on to swell their ranks with other musicians to get that Symphonic sound for their next album and really hit their stride!

Negatives aside, this album is unequivocally nice and I thoroughly recommend it as background music to serenade a young lady/old man with.

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