EYES OF THE UNIVERSE

"Eyes Of The Universe" is the tenth studio album of Barclay James Harvest and that was released in 1979. This album represents the first change into the line up of group because their keyboardist and founder member Woolly Wolstenholme left the band after the release of their previous studio album "XII". This was the group's first shake up inside the line up of Barclay James Harvest until then. Woolly Wolstenholme started a short solo musical career, before retiring from the music business to pursue farming. He only returned to music activity, after a withdrawal of almost twenty years, accompanying John Lees on the studio album "Nexus", released in 1999, a musical project of John Lees named Barclay James Harvest Trough The Eyes Of John Lees. With his departure Barclay James Harvest lost some of their sparkle and originality, but the most important at all, they lost the last traces of progressivity in the band's music.

In consequence of the departure of Woolly Wolstenholme from the group, the three remaining original band's members invited two other musicians to participate on this album, Kevin McAlea (keyboards) and Alan Fawkes (saxophone).

"Eyes Of The Universe" has eight tracks. The first track "Love On The Line" written by Les Holroyd is a good song, very predictable but also very well arranged as usual by the band. It's a kind of a song with some grandiosity and splendour, instilled by massive synthesizer performances and great guitar riffs. It's a very nice song to ear. The second track "Alright Down Get Boogie" written by John Lees isn't for sure one of the best musical moments of John Lees. It's a song that intended to sound rock but is too repetitive and unimaginative to be considered a good rock song. It should be a disco song, but it failed too. Sincerely, it's a song somewhat unsuccessfully in both aspects. The third track "The Song (They Love To Sing)" written by Les Holroyd is, for me, one of the best tracks on the album. It starts beautifully with a theme performed by synthesizer played in a percussive way. It's a very beautiful song, very well sung which isn't always usual in Les Holroyd. The song reminds me, in many moments, the sound of Genesis. This is, in my opinion, a great Les Holroyd composition. The fourth track "Skin Flicks" written by John Lees is one of the most melodic tracks on the album. It's a song with nice guitar work including a good guitar solo in the end of the song. However, and as with "Alright Down Get Boogie", this is another song that can't represent, for sure, one of the best musical moments of John Lees. The fifth track "Sperratus" written by John Lees is, on the contrary, a better song than his two previous songs. This is probably the best contribution of John Lees to this album. It's a song that creates a perfect musical ambience of a truly symphonic progressive song with a perfect and distinct energy of pompous rock. This song represents without doubt a great musical moment. The sixth track "Rock & Roll Lady" written by Les Holroyd is a very nice pop rock song. It's a song that reminds me strongly "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" from the album "Agents Of Fortune" of Blue Oyster Cult. The similitude is, for me, so big, and as the album from Blue Oyster Cult was previously released in 1976, I think sincerely that it's almost an impossible coincidence. It isn't as energetic as "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is, but however, it's an interesting song with fine guitar work. The seventh track "Capricorn" written by John Lees is another melodic soft rock song with interesting lyrics about the violence and destruction made by mankind. This is also the other really good song composed by John Lees to this album, which almost sounds like a classic John Lees musical composition. The eighth and last track "Play To The World" written by Les Holroyd is a beautiful and the most symphonic song created by Les Holroyd for this album. It's a very beautiful ballad very well performed and, once again, is very well sung by Les Holroyd. The song ends beautifully with a saxophone work, which isn't anything usual in the band. This is truly a song that represents a good and beautiful musical moment. I think it closes the album in a very beautiful way, indeed.

Conclusion: "Eyes Of The Universe" remains, for me, a very good album. But it has a very huge problem to me. Woolly Wolstenholme is no longer in the group. Woolly Wolstenholme saw all his musical proposals being rejected by the other band's members. Disillusioned with those rejections and the musical direction that was being taken by Barclay James Harvest, he left the group. He even said: "I felt that we had lost some of our original ideas. It became apparent to me that unless things changed, I couldn't see myself working with the band for much longer". It's true that Barclay James Harvest never was one of the most progressive bands in the world. However, and in my humble opinion, with the departure of Woolly Wolstenholme, Barclay James Harvest lost permanently, their progressive musical influence and the typical classic symphonic compositions made by him in the band. So, despite all those things, and as I said before, I still keep the opinion that "Eyes Of The Universe" is a good album, where curiously, the compositions made by Les Holroyd are in general better than those made by John Lees. However, "Eyes Of The Universe" isn't a true progressive rock album. Thus, it can never be regarded as an excellent addition to any progressive rock collection. So, 3 stars only.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Share this BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to VianaProghead
• Report this review (#3084970)
• Buy BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST music online with PA partners
• Show all BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST MP3/Stream
• Go to BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Eyes Of The Universe page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST related discussions