PYRAMID

The Poe-themed debut of APP was never surpassed, especially what comes to the excitement of the songs, but my second best album of them is definitely this one. For a new listener, even for a totally non-prog person, Pyramid is perhaps the best place to start. It has some of the finest moments of the band, with a superb sound - too bad that it has some lows too. And that it is a bit short (under 38 minutes).

Instrumental 'Voyager' starts a wonderful quartet of tracks, setting the spellbinding tone with an airy synth intro and a pulsating beat, then turning seamlessly into 'What Goes Up...'. It's easy to remember who was the engineer of Dark Side of the Moon! 'The Eagle Will Rise Again' is a melancholic, even sentimental beauty reminiscent of 'Old & Wise' from Eye in the Sky - both are sung by Colin Bluntstone. This one's better. 'One More River' is sung by Lenny Zakatek, and though I dislike his vocal style in other APP songs, it works here brilliantly. But again it's the perfectionistic touch of the sound architect that makes this track soar gorgeously. The A side is finished by a song about the inevitability of dying. It's not in the same level as the tracks before it and even the nice refrain taken from 'One More River' doesn't save it from getting slightly boring within five minutes.

B side is weaker. 'In the Lap of the Gods' is a pompous instrumental with a choir, quite fine really but it lacks the airyness of the first side. 'Pyramania' then is a jokelike little song sung in high falsetto. It's amusing but nothing more. 'Hyper-Gamma-Spaces' is one of those dull high tech instrumentals that APP has done more than needed. But the final song is just lovely. 'Shadow of A Lonely Man' is sung very beautifully by John Miles (who, by the way, has some proggy solo albums considerable of adding here...). If you're not turned on by deep emotions in music it may be too sentimental to you. To me it was THE song of the summer of '90 (when I bought this LP). Pyramid is very recommendable for admirers of perfect production and adventurous or emotional feelings in music.