THE COMPILATIONS, 1996 TO 2004

Hot on the heels of this past summer's masterpiece, The Inconsolable Secret, GLASS HAMMER releases another brand new album. According to GLASS HAMMER's website, "All tracks included on The Compilations, 1996 to 2004 either never made their way to an official album, were recorded for tribute albums, or were part of compilation projects that included many prog artists." That's all well and good, but the quality of the songs included on this album are exceptional, and certainly to be considered amongh the band's best, leaving one to wonder why GLASS HAMMER never saw fit to include some of these tracks on previous albums.

The album starts off with a jaw dropping rendition of TIme Marches On performed live at ProgDay 1997. This recording, as well as all other live GH recordings, prove the band's mettle when it comes to playing in front of an audience. From there, we get a fantastic interpretation of Camel's Air Born. Indeed, I think GH does the song more justice than Camel ever did. Skipping to the end of the album we find the 21 minute epic, In the Court of Alkinoos. This song is everything an epic prog piece should be, with beautiful vocals and harmonies, lush keyboards, odd time signatures, and much more. This piece provide 21 minutes of pure bliss, a perfect anchor to an already exceptional album.

The biggest difference with this album is that it's only available via Apple iTunes Music Store. While some may be put off by the iTunes Music Store, I was pleasantly surprised as the quality of the encoding, as well as with Apple's DRM policies. You can easily burn the downloading tracks to CD, as well as place them on your iPod. Best of all, the cost of the album via iTunes is only $9.99. You can't beat such a deal, and you can't beat the music on this new album. Definitely a worthy addition to any prog collection, especially for prog fans of symphonic, keyboard-laden music.