PLANETS

By the time this album was released, what a treat for me at the time. All the punk and new wave bands like The Human League, Robert Palmer, Mo, B 52's, Duran Duran were common music to all radio stations in Bandung, West Java, where I took my engineering study. About the same period, Genesis released "abacab", Yes with "90125". Prog was really dead. Planets soon became my favorite choice for my day-to-day rock listening pleasure. I don't know why this morning I grab this album and put my amplifier volume "high". Wow! What a great and memorable album! This album represents my first introduction to the band. Quite late actually, as the band was already there during the glorious years of the seventies. But I was so lucky with the release of this album - in the middle of punk and new wave that swept music industry in the world.

"Introduction" provides an overture that sets the tone for the album. It flows to the second track that represents my first "in love" with the band: "On The Verge Of Darkening Lights" - an uplifting song opened beautifully with an upbeat spacey music. The keyboard dominates the song. The vocal quality is very nice and powerful - it has the same timbre with the space rock music. Perfect! The keyboard solo after two verses of singing passage is simple but it's very enjoyable - especially it's augmented with a bass guitar and drum beats. The overall music is performed in an energetic style.

The next track continues with a transition of spacey keyboard and enters to "Point Of No Return" in a slower tempo. The beauty of this track lies on the keyboard sound at the back that fills in alternate with voice line. It's a great composition and it has an excellent melody. Guitar is only used at the end of the bars to accentuate the music. "The evidence of no future ." oh what a nice melody .. BTW, bass guitar plays an important role in this track. Overall composition of this track can be considered as a symphonic space rock music.

"Mysterious Monolith" opens with a nice combination between guitar fills and keyboard sound followed with a powerful vocal in this quiet passage. The music flows in a slow tempo with obvious bass guitar work. A very nice opening verse. The keyboard then enters the music smoothly followed with some effects. Bass guitar provides a transition that brings the music into a little bit faster tempo exploring the works of keyboards. Guitar is uses as rhythm section. The keyboard exploration in the middle of the track is simple and melodic. The break with bass guitar solo augmented with keyboard sound effects provide a spacey and futuristic nuance.

"Queen Of The Night" is a song with a very melodic opening, backed with an orchestration. The music moves in a crescendo with drum beats followed with female backing vocals. It sounds pop but it's very nice and enjoyable. The orchestration has helped a lot in strengthening the composition, overall. It reminds me to a sort of Electric Light Orchestra music but in a spacey mood. In addition to the simple orchestra, I love the vocal quality also.

"At The Gates Of Dawn" is an instrumental track with soft piano, keyboard and guitar fills performed in mellow style. The melody is made through the keyboard sound at background. It gives a spacey nuance of the song. Orchestration is added in the middle of the track. Overall, this track provides an excellent break to the album as a whole.

"Sphinx" brings the music into a medium tempo mood with - still - maintaining the melodic nature of a composition, using keyboard as the main pillar of the structure. Again, the band gives a very nice passage in the middle of the track where it turns into a quieter passage featuring vocal backed with a keyboard exploration. There is a simple drum solo that sounds poppy but it fits the whole structure of the song. Excellent!

"Carried By Cosmic Winds" is a very nice song opened with a melodic keyboard sounds that brings the music to vocal line. Vocal quality is really good. When the music enters with all instruments, the organ sound serves as main melody followed with a keyboard solo to accompany backing female voices. Some keyboard sound is emulating cello / violin sounds - it provide some orchestration flavor to the song. Excellent!

Overall, it's a highly recommended album. Despite it's relatively simple composition, this album comprises all excellent tracks that form a cohesive music as a whole. At the time of its release in 1981, it was a masterpiece and I still consider it the same after more than 20 years around us. I may be too naïve, but I think this album deserves a full five star rating. - Keep on progging!

Yours progressively,

GW - Indonesia

Share this ELOY review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Gatot
• Report this review (#3268)
• Buy ELOY music online with PA partners
• Show all ELOY MP3/Stream
• Go to ELOY page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Planets page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ELOY related discussions