YESTERLIFE

I'm happy to finally see Melody included in Progarchives. I bought Yesterlife on a recommendation, and glad I did. OK, so the cover is terrible, it's the main reason the album isn't known to a larger prog audience. In 1976 they released Come Fly With Me on the Pole label, which were more of demo quality (although be careful of the Tapioca version as it also contained material from Mahogany Brain). They got a deal with a proper label, Vogue and in 1977 released Yesterlife. A good portion of the album was actually remakes of material from Come Fly With Me, but now benefiting with a professional production. The music is dominated by the vocals of Diana Chase, apparently an American (which I don't doubt, given there is absolutely no accent in her voice, since English is her first language). Basically, nice, song-based prog there's often compared to the likes of Renaissance and Genesis, the latter coming from Gabriel-like male vocals from Patrick Frehner. Nice use of synths used throughout the album. The remakes are pretty recognizable from the originals, although the lyrics were frequently changed. "Merry Go Round" and "Welcome to Wonderland" were accidentally switched in the credits, as the album actually starts with "Welcome to Wonderland", then "Merry Go Round". The music is really nice, perhaps my favorite being the lengthiest one, "Wailing Wall". Not too often to find Jewish themed lyrics in a prog setting, but this is a rare example. Really love that one lovely vocal passage from Diana herself, plus there's some nice use of Mellotron flutes (too bad the Mellotron wasn't used elsewhere in the album).

Whatever the case, don't let the album cover scare you off, this is a nice album of semi-symphonic prog (no wonder it's considered crossover) with really nice female vocals. It probably won't set your world on fire, but worth your time.