MEN SINGING

I have been LOVING this album since I first heard it about a month ago and moreso now that I own it, BUT I will/can not in good conscious give it a five star rating for two major resaons: it's brevity and it's lack of vocals. Though I cherish and relish instrumental music, it takes an extraordinary product for me to rate an entirely instrumental album with a full five stars cuz it is my opinion (though I am not consistent with this principle and, therefore, guilty of hypocrisy) that the 'guts' it takes to add vocals and lyrics to music is part of the 'risk' involved in making progressive rock what it is. Also, though, yes, the "classics" of the pre-CD era of music recording were 'limited' (ask Todd Rundgren about the 'limitations' of the vinyl medium) to 35 to 42 minutes of music, today's artists are not and, I believe, should do the consumer/listener the courtesy of labeling a product that contains less than 40 minutes of music as an EP (though I have bought a few EP's that have contained over 50 or 60 minutes of music, so that designation can be irregular, inconsistent and, therefore, misleading). But these nitpicking complaints aside, let me say that this album contains five interesting, enjoyable, upbeat, well-composed and well-performed songs; it is an album that I have happily returned to over and over without disappointment. This surprises me a bit because It is rare that the full presence of saxophone is well received by me, but it works on this album. Men Singing is, indeed, in my humble opinion, an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection.