COLLECTOR'S ITEM

This is a good collection of Twelfth Night's work, show-casing the talents and very different styles of Geoff Mann and Andy Sears. Geoff Mann was one of the greatest lyricists and performers on the neo-progressive scene. His approach was not to everyone's taste but then the same can be said of the forced vocal styles of Peter Hammill (who is the undoubted king of the atmospheric, emotion drenched vocal), Peter Gabriel and Peter Nicholls - strange bit of synchronicity that, all those Peters! - and of course Fish.

Anyway, Twelfth Night defy comparison with their contemporaries so avoid any preconceptions and let this one stand on its own merits. I don't think you'll be disappointed by it. The track listing depends on the release you have and there were several (check out www.twelfthnight.info for details) but particularly noteworthy tracks are...well, all of them ;-)

But seriously, on my Food For Thought CD release, I consider the best tracks to be We Are Sane - very progressive and made up of three distinct segments - dealing with technology as a means of mind control; Sequences - the futility of war; Art & Illusion - an up-tempo and short by TN standards rocker about how we use trickery and sleight of hand to decieve one another; and, of course, Take A Look - Andy Sears frightening vision of technology gone haywire.

Other ones to note (depending on release) are Blondon Fair, The Ceiling Speaks, and Love Song - all very different and hard to pigeonhole - why do we have to categorize everything anyway?

Anyway, as this is a compilation, I'll only give it 4 stars even though TN are one of my favourite bands but I still recommend it as a worthy retrospective. If you want a 5 star album by TN, get Live And Let Live which really showcases the brilliance of Geoff Mann as a vocal performer.