SECOND ALBUM

Second Album is the second release from female led british symphonic rock atc Curved Air. Second Album is an album I´ve had for about 10 years, but it´s only now that I´ve listened closely to the album to make this review. Many people compare Curved Air with Renaissance and most of them comes out calling Curved Air a second rate version of Renaissance. IMO there are lots of similarities between the music of those two bands. Most notably the classical music influences and the female singing. As for the suggestion that Curved Air is a second rate version of Renaissance I only partially agree, but on the other hand I do agree that Renaissance is the better band of those two.

The music on second hand is a bit more interesting than it was on the debut and it´s mostly due to Young Mother, Puppets and the ending almost 13 minute long epic Piece of Mind. Most of the other songs are still rooted firmly in the sixties and I recall a band like Jefferson Airplane while the three mentioned songs are more symphonic seventies inspired ( well Puppets is just a more exciting song than the rest, It really isn´t symphonic. I like the more symphonic songs on the album the best. Some parts remind me a bit about Genesis.

Sonja Kristina has a good voice, but she does become a bit annoying at times because of the way she delivers her lines. It´s hard to explain as I don´t know much about vocal techniques but she just isn´t my favorite female singer. Francis Monkman plays some great piano and VCS3 synthesizer parts that really adds to the music while Darryl Way also needs to be mentioned for his violin playing which is great. The rhythm section is pretty good too.

The production is very good for the time and it´s easy to hear everything that´s being played in the mix.

The cover artwork isn´t very interesting and surely won´t win them any awards.

Curved Air will always stand in the shadow of the much better Renaissance but this album is definitely worth purchasing if you´re a fan of that particular band or just curious about female led symphonic prog rock. 3 stars is my rating for Second Album.