Fruupp - The Prince of Heaven's Eyes

It almost sounded like a fairy-tale progressive rock album for children and it was very different while listening to Fruupp’s music for the first time. For me, I am now a huge fan of Fruupp and their third concept album, The Prince of Heaven’s Eyes is a miraculous
Album from beginning to end, most of it almost reminds me of an Irish version of Genesis in 1974. Now if you love the PG-era of Genesis, this is a band that you need to get into. The music is very Christian, Jazz, Folk, and Classical at the same time if you like that type of genre. The story of the album is about a little boy named Mud Flanigan who is searching to find the end of the rainbow after the death of his parents. As he begins his journey, Mud meets some various characters throughout the entire album that are strange, angelic, riders, and sometimes mudgy at the same time. But don’t take my word for it, this is a beautiful story and the songs and some instrumental pieces are exaggerating.
The opening number, It’s All Up Now, which is about Mud’s beginning of the journey. It has a mellowing tone as the drums and keyboards come in like a golden horse flying up in the air while the guitar is doing a medieval homage while it becomes very 19th century from keyboardist Stephen Houston while bassist Peter Farrelly comes up with this angelic voice coming out of nowhere. He has this voice like no other as he comes up with bass patterns to fit the song and then it becomes a happy-go-lucky broadway number in the midsection with the lyrics ‘Hold On, Hold On, What’ll I Do, I don’t want to end up in a pot of stew’ which seems very comedic of the Irish folktales and then it goes back into the finale of the mellowing ballad. Prince of Darkness, which starts off with the horse riding into the night, gives you goosebumps in Fruupp’s narration when Mud meets the Black Prince and gives him a lift on the horse and would take him where the fairies were preparing a feast to wine and dine on.
The song about the Prince of the Night is mysterious, dark, and strange, but superb in an astonishing way. The 2-minute country rocking instrumental piece Jaunting Car which was released as a single, but part of the album, it becomes a twangy piece very Johnny Cash meets Genesis mellotronic piece as Mud drives along with the driver into the valley of the Mudgemen.
Annie Austere, which has a very fast tempo, as the band do a little bit heavy turned symphonic classical piano, the lyrics are fun also as they’re quirky and also kind of romantic beauty for a little boy’s own taste of love and romance as it segues into Knowing You, a 10-minute epic which is the heartfelt pieces on the album which has a sound that has an emotion and kind of wedding music turned proggish at the same time almost very Yes like.
Crystal Brook, which is very church like boy choir sound, has Peter doing an operatic voice while Stephen is playing very emotional on the grand piano for the lead vocalist. It almost sounded like if Peter was fighting back tears while singing this while the background effect of the ocean breezes into the sunset. Seaward Sunset is very has the homage of Camel’s Moonmadness and then becomes symphonic again which has a piano doing some Mozart like sound while the guitar becomes Latimerish done by Vincent McCusker while drummer Martin Foye calms the drum very smooth in this folksy love tune.
The Perfect Wish which ends the story as Mud becomes a rich man to find the gold at the end of the rainbow, has a great melodic tone which is almost a reprise of It’s All Up Now in a dynamic climax with a ragtime quicky and then becoming the ending of all endings in to bid our hero Mud, a final farewell. Fruupp broke up in 1974 after the release of their fourth and last studio album with Modern Masquerades which didn't feautre Houston because he wanted to puruse his christianity faith to become a Reverend. Buy all of the Fruupp albums, you won't regret it!