THE SNOW GOOSE

This is a recent acquisition of mine and it is a real gem. I had heard bits and pieces of it in the past, but had never heard the whole thing until recently. As mentioned above, this is music inspired by the story "The Snow Goose." I find it interesting that the band had problems with the publisher into securing a licensing agreement. Surely the album helped boost the sales of the book... I know it makes me want to go out and buy it. In any case, they didn't get the agreement and it turned out to be a largely instrumental album. No matter- that may bother some of you- in this case, I think the lyrics would only get in the way of the music.

The Good: Some above have complained about the shorter songs, but in my opinion, every prog album doesn't have to consist of a few 15 minute epics to be prog. I think the short song format works perfectly on this album- it is inspired by a SHORT story. And it does work. Some of the songs like "Rhayader", "Rhayader Goes to Town" and "Fritha" are spectacular. "Friendship" is a daring little "minuet" to put onto a Progressive rock album. This album will remind you of the classical roots of Symphonic Prog more than just about any other.

The Bad: While it isn't a put off for me- I realize many of you might be alarmed by the lack of lyrics, so I thought I'd mention that again. And it does fall on the softer end of Progressive Rock, so those of you who use the B & B (Beavis and Butthead) scale of rating music might find it sucks because of that. But those who like their music complex and beautiful regardless of how "hard" it is, won't be bothered by that.

The Ugly: I really don't like "Dunkirk." It seems just a bit repetitive and out of place.