ASYLUM

This album is terrible. The first Cressida album managed to overcome the group's shortcomings while this one flaunts them. The record begins mediocre, but soon the maudlin bombastic string arrangements, endless soloing (guitar and keyboard), and horrid vocals destroy everything as Asylum turns into one of the most pretentious and fool-hardy albums of the entire early progressive era. There are no songs here, just dull incoherent soloing, tone deaf strident arrogant in your face bad Jim Morrison impersonations, and string arrangements that are among the worst ever to have been recorded. Cressida's first album had a good deal of Caravan and Moody Blues in it, this one opts for the jazzier more overbearing side of prog- like a bad Soft Machine or a diluted Denmark's Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, only worse. It foreshadows the kind of mindless pomposity that would devour ELP alive some years later on Brain Salad Surgery and Works and it also goes back to the kind of aimless drivel recorded by uninspired folky psych bands in Britain in the late 60s who made all the great British 60s records sound so much better. It's hard to know what Cressida were thinking when they recorded this. It's not like they couldn't have done long tracks that would have been good, it's more like in the middle of every track they give up and it all goes awry. Please, give me Deep Purple any day over this nonsense. If the tracks are this drawn out they better (A) Rock or (B) have a strong and commanding atmopshere. This is the rarer and more expensive of the two Cressida albums, also the more richly praised which I can't see anyone in their right mind having that opinion. Not terrible musicians, but remember that mediocrity can become terrible when stretched beyond its limitations. The main problem is Angus Cullen's horrible vocals which are really obnoxious and strain and crack in their attempt to sound depressed or ominous. It reminds me of Marsupilami, another of my least favourite prog bands, or Dr. Z on the same label with lots of guitar wanking thrown in to make the tuneless vocals even worse. I will get to the point, this album is so bad I couldn't listen to it all the way through. For me to not listen to a prog record all the way through it must really be awful. This is awful. As bad as it gets and I breathe a sigh of relief that Cressida split after it's recording. If you want to spend a lot of money on this sort of music then buy Fantasy, Czar, Asgard (UK), Spring, but avoid this. If you don't want to spend a ton of money but want a better AND more progressive album, buy Deep Purple's self titled third album and hear what Real Progressive Rock is.