FOUNTAINS OF LIGHT

I heard this album soon after it's release. The review in the English music press at the hight of punk rock was sufficiently glowing. Strangely, punk rock was supposed to rid the planet of dinosaur prog rock.

I was immediately hooked. The quality of songs, musicianship, production is all spot-on. You have multi layered vocals, twiddl yet sweeping keyboards, variation of pace, guitar, inventive diums, everything you expect from the best of the genre.

OK - let's talk about "Yes"... the original progsters tend to always have weak moments on their albums. There never was a definitive Yes albm without flaw or blemish. Starcastle achieved in "Fountains Of Light" what their heroes never could. This album left me feling that Yes were no longer the real thing.

If you like your music progressive, then this is one of the top 10 ever. Put it alongside Nektar (Recycled or RTF), Floyd (Dark Side or WWWH), ELP (Trilogy does it for me),The Moody Blues (Lost Chord), Bachdenkel (Lemmings), Jethro Tull (if you like that sort of thing) more modern classics from Dream Theater(Scenes...), Queensryche (...Mindcrime), Mostly Autumn, but a couple of listens should convince the majority of true proggies that this really is a Diamond.

This really is a true masterpiece. Even the picture on the sleeve speaks of quality. It is one of the great album sleeves ever.

...and I still enjoy the listening experience today, despite liking punk rock, folk rock, Bon Jovi, Madonna, etc... This is the business.