AUDIENCE [AKA: THE FIRST ALBUM]

Somewhat more straight-ahead and simple than the more baroque and polished stylings of Friends' Friends' Friend or House On the Hill (an early version of the title track from which appears here), the debut album by Audience is still a confident bit of first-wave progressive rock that puts Keith Gemmell's saxophone and Howard Werth's idiosyncratic vocals and evocative lyrics at the heart of the Audience sound. If you've already taken in the superior followups, it still has plenty to offer, whereas if you are new to Audience it's a reasonable enough introduction to their sound, even if it isn't necessarily the absolute best one.