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Albatross, Garden of Eden (Garden of Delights)
Cyberconnection: http://www.forcedexposure.com/labels/garden.of.delights.germany.html
I saw one quickie summary of this album that said "Genesis-like
symphonic," but if you're looking for that look elsewhere. Albatros's 1978
debut album does have it's foot strongly in the progressive camp (three songs
clocking in at 19, 10 and 11 minutes) but it doesn't have the symphonic
graduer of Gabriel and Co. But it does do what sets out to do pretty well.
Actually, the first side long epic "A Man Like Me" is probably the
weakest cut. It's very Nektar-like with a hint of Pink Floyd, more from
musical simplicity than actual style. Psychedelic organ swirls punctuated by
guitar and drum hits open the album, giving way to equally trippy guitar and
piano before erupting into a majestic guitar-lead theme. It's a good opening,
and then the vocals come in with a pretty good rock song (Vocals are actually
quite good except for the heavy German accents on English lyrics). But after
the 7 minute or so mark (ironically announced with the flushing of a toilet),
the piece seems to run out of ideas and starts meandering. Even a reprise to
the good first section seems ineffective.
The two shorter tracks, obviously, benefit from their comparitive
brevity. "Sundriver" is a fairly intense minor-key piece with a good use of
troughs and peaks and some great psych-ish guitar leads. The last cut is the
title track, which shows some intelligent use of mood and texture and more
rock-styled piano playing (which I wasn't all that crazy about).
Compositionally, it's not quite as strong as "Sundriver" but stays away from
the meanderings of the first track, for the most part (the lovely acoustic
piano / acoustic guitar interlude is particularly noteworthy).
I wasn't crazy about the album but found it reasonably enjoyable. I'm
sure there are some folks out there who might really dig it, and you probably
know who you are.
~Jon Dharma~
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