ROYAL BED BOUNCER

Kayak started in 1973 with a Genesis and Yes inspired "See See the Sun". Their second record (often called "the second") shows more Pink Floyd influences and a more distinctive "Kayak" sound. This "Royal bed Bouncer" may be Kayak's first effort which is only typical Kayak with no obvious links anymore to Yes, Genesis or Pink Floyd, except that it's mostly symphonic based. In my opinion Kayak was growing from their first effort till this Royal bed Bouncer, which is together with the next "Last Encore" the peak of their carreer (or at least their first peak). For fans of Yes and Genesis however I'd rather advise Kayak's first effort, because of the similarities in sound.

On the Royal Bed Bouncer Kayak has perfected their formula of song based sympho prog with a nice balance between up-tempo tracks and prog ballads. Their is a lot of clean piano to be heard and some nice guitar tunes; also some mellotron for the atmosphere. Because of the short track lengths their is no time to mesmorize the listener with the more charming atmospheres, but the continual mood changes and great mixing of the record makes this one long trip. The vocals of Max Werner are as good as ever and some of the tracks are outstanding like the up-tempo opening track "Royal Bed Bouncer" with excellent piano arrangements and "Patricia Anglaia" which is a song based on a female vocal solo by guest musician "Patricia". The record is actually nice troughout and ends with the great "My heart never changes" which is so emotionally filled that I think it will do something to most of the listeners.

In my opinion this record is as best described as a better balanced version of Genesis' "Lamb lies down on Broadway" with less repetition and shorter tracks. Further I'd like to mention that their is a version on the market with a different album cover with a picture of a loyal coach on it which suits the record much better then the cover displayed on progarchives.