Looking Towards The Sky: Progressive, Psychedelic, and Folk Rock From The Ember Vaults

The eccentric and eclectic view of progressive, psychedelic, and folk rock of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s is a real treat. But thanks to the reissue label, Fantastic Voyage, who are helping to revisit the indie label Ember Records, this is worth checking out to know about the obscure and the underground scene of the psychedelic movement that reached to a cult status. It’s like Treasure Island, but it’s hidden through the generosity of the bands you’ve never heard throughout this compilation, and it pulls together like a tightrope. Looking Towards The Sky: Progressive, Psychedelic, and Folk Rock from the Ember Vaults may be considered one of the volumes on undiscovered gems of the independent rock scene that are filled unheard bands and artists to come close to the essence of unheard music that will give you goosebumps and take you surprise in the new dimension. Don’t forget, the track-list covers 15 of the bands that will make you have a love/hate relationship in huge debates, so let’s cut the bullshit fellas. So if you are interested and already have a huge growth in the music genre, this is your Wonka ticket here. If you were a part of the underground scene and for a new generation of upcoming progsters discovering this music, well here it is.

Now for most of you are thinking, “Is this a rip off of the Nuggets compilation?” No it isn’t. this is the history of the record label and for you listeners who are mouth-watery of hearing this will be blown away. Looking Towards The Sky takes you through a magic carpet ride through the unheard masterminds of the bands/artists that never saw the light at the end of tunnel to achieve the big time and drew from the weirdness and beyond the musical infinity.

Starting the album off is the political driven folk romp of 9:30 Fly’s Life and Times which includes a dynamic acoustic background and fuzz tone solo that is very dramatic including the vocalization as well while the Canadian garage rockers The Dorians push the nuggets envelope further with a dosage of psych-pop on the chugging rhythm section on Help For My Waiting and the eerie Beatle-esque harmonization of Good Love. Welsh-Prog Rockers Blonde on Blonde make an appearance on the album to give you a real kick in the gun with a strong energy in the force-like compositions like: Heart Without A Home, the homage to Arthur Lee and Love’s Forever Changes-era on Sad Song For An Easy Lady, and the 7-minute album version middle-eastern beauty of Circles from the Rebirth Album that you need to get thanks to the vocalization of David Thomas who could have been the next Roy Orbison.

As for US indie psych rockers Blue Beard, they brought an organic garage nugget flavor to Loving You as Rusty Harness who could have been the next Mick Farren with the upbeat soul dance clap of Goodbye on the edge of your seat. But it’s tracks like Doin’ The Best I Can by Paddy Maguire that bring a heartfelt ballad to eternity as if he and Traffic teamed up to create this piece while Knocker Jungle pays homage to Marc Bolan’s Tyrannosaurus Rex on I Don’t Know Why and Reality that makes it linear and harmonic. Meanwhile, 9:30 Fly are back on the horseshoe again with the 7-minute prog epic that could have been a cornerstone in the genre with the exhilarating number, Mr. 509.

Elsewhere, Davey Payne & The Medium Wave bring a pastoral horn section and string quartet along with a dynamic James Bond feel with the title track. You can tell this is something out of the oven that is cooked well-done and freshly baked as well. Then we get into the proto-hard rock antique in the reminiscent of Otis Redding with Milt Matthews Inc. as he brings the soul into the anti-war number on Disaster Area and as for the finale, The Back Street Band’s This Ain’t The Road is a fitting closing that is very power pop and very much in the mind of Badfinger’s Magic Christian Music-era.

This is a perfect compilation for anyone who wants to sink their feet in the hidden treasure of the obscure prog gems and look towards the next compilation Summer Turns To Autumn. For the tracks, this is a true adventure of the unheard bands and the possibilities of how prog rock stays alive and never dies.

Panna Fredda - Uno

With a dosage of the tower of Pisa, Fellini, and Hard Rock, it’s only surprising that their only debut album, Panna Fredda might bring their homage to the love of British Prog Rock. They have a sound that is similar to Uriah Heep meets the MKII-era of Deep Purple. Formed out of the ashes of I Figli Del Sole and I Vun Vun in the late ‘60s in Rome, the band signed a contract with Italian label, Vendette and soon became Panna Fredda. The band released two singles from the label and soon worked on their album, Uno. Their only album, released in 1971, the band was already to call it a day due to the band members to join the Army. But the album itself is one of a kind thanks to guitar and vocalist Angelo Giardinelli as the compositions features some wild tracks that made a blend of the classical music sound and the dancing tribes.

Opening track, La Paura starts off with Lino Stopponi’s whooshing keyboard sound to make it very outer space-like sound with Angelo’s haunting vocals and guitar riffs and help from the bass and drum section with Pasquale “Windy” Cavallo and Roberto Balocco. Panna Fredda here bring texture to the piece, and they pack a punch to the album as they go into a the Fireball-era jam session as Angelo goes into a Ritchie Blackmore mode for the band to follow him wherever the solo will lead him into. There aren’t any excuses for the next upcoming track, but it’s quite amazing on how this band could have been the next big thing and would have given Deep Purple a run for their money.

However, an homage to Gracious atmospheric composition, Heaven comes into the scenery with Un Re Senza Reame as Lino does some sort of an ambient sound on the organ and Angelo’s acoustical folk songwriting complex comes into the foreplay as it becomes very frenzy at the end while Un Uomo sounds like a film-score for The Man With No Name trilogy with a rumbling yet disturbing number of love, death, and betrayal. These two tracks of Panna Fredda’s work is considered a perfect compilation for Halloween music for Prog lovers that could have been performed live and using the band’s love of the British Rock scene; it’s these two numbers that would have the listener jump out their seat and finding out why this band was ahead of their time.

It’s quite possible that you might find yourself in the nick of time to an epic or a suite. You could really began to pay close attention on where the track would lay ahead for you. There’s no turning back by the time you get to Scacco Al Re Lot – but after listening to this album twice, even if you love or loathe the album, you’ll be in luck to be introduced into the world of Italian Progressive Rock music.

On this track, it’s very Baroque and has a beautiful classical and melodic number that is in the mind of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow yet with a 17th century rocking boundary that has a gothic introduction at first and then turned into a piece that Camille Saint-Seans could have written for them that would have been a sequel to the Danse Macabre. Then we get into the epic of all epics with the 9-minute piece Il Vento, La Luna E Pulcini Blu (Sole Rosso). It features a harpsichord and more of the gothic background pieces that moves away from the prog sound with Windy doing a dooming wah-wah sound on the bass that sounds like it’s from hell and then it’s turned into a piece that it’s very much in the mind of Mozart. You have to admit, it’s a weird mind-boggling track, but it’s dynamic and insane at the same time.

Waiting is Lino’s composition, starting off with the whoosing moog and then turning it into a frenzy homage to Keith Emerson & The Nice is a fitting close to the album in the style of Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo a la Turk. The last two tracks are the singles of Delirio, a heartfelt ballad in the mind of Aphrodite’s Child and Strisce Rosse, an explosive psychedelic rocker that could have knocked off White Rabbit. Even though the tracks seem very interesting, it’s worth checking out and seeing how Panna Fredda became Psych turned into the band that could have been a part of the Italian circuit.

Dakrya - Crime Scene

Those who are looking for an adventure of theatrical stories and the avant-garde scene from Greek’s Experimental up-and-coming band Dakrya will take a huge approach to start in their follow up adventures in the territory of Progressive Metal in their second album, Crime Scene. The album cover features the piano as a cover-up as evidence on top of the piano is a small yet eerie amusement park that is emptied and no one there which the listener might get the feeling that something has gone horribly wrong. This is an album that will scare the living shit out of you and it is perfect to be a special trick-or-treat celebration for Halloween.

Opening number, The Charlatans is a real operatic force. In this number, Dakrya are in the mind world of Goth, Theatre, and a twisted version of Within Temptation meets a theatrical version of Aphrodite’s Child’s 666, but with this militant carousel rocker, it’s all very much a disturbing children’s fairy tale that is mind-blowing, albeit with time signature of experimental metal. Probably one of the most weirdest songs yet it’s fun and joyful to listen to. Blind Man’s Bluff starts off with a quirky amusement park organ introduction as it transforms a disturbing glow between chugging guitars, machine gun sounds of the drum, walking bass line, death cookie-monster vocals, with a little help from two female vocalists Christina Kalantzi and Thomais Chatzigianni who would have been a Kid Sister of Tarja and Sharon Den Adel. There’s been a love/hate relationship of Female fronted metal bands, but Dakrya, the magic is there and the duo vocalists work together as a team. It’s very twisted and works like a charm with the Art Metal sound.

Which leads into Scaremongering, which features SophiaX’s dooming piano concerto Alex Drake’s fuzzy bass introduction and then turned into a headbanging adventure as George Droulias represents a circus presenter to the murder scene, you can tell that this is something Vangelis, Demis and Lukas would have appreciated and put on their next album that could have been a sequel to infamous concept album. The swinging yet homage to the 1930’s jazz scene thanks to Sophia’s crazy piano work and George’s raw guitar sound and death metal vocals on The Urban Tribe fits the atmosphere in Dakrya’s world of art theatre. As for Camouflage which is back into the nightclub jazz scene as if its set in the darker amusement park as the performers come up with exotic dances for the group rumbles of psychopathic roars.

Phantasmagoria, which is an homage to Lewis Carroll, recalls a freak show resembling to Tod Browning’s controversial cult 1932 classic Freaks as if it’s a rock opera turned into a shattering composition as hissing vocals and middle-eastern guitar beats fill the atmosphere while the homage to Bigelf’s Cheat The Gallows of Inertia thunderstorms through a swirling pool of terror before the climatic horror show that it is out of this world. The 6-minute Dramatis Personae musical layered of the haunting sound from the duo and George enjoying together as they do a dance for Oscar Wilde with a set of performing music for him and writing a composition for The Picture of Dorian Gray before closing the album with an instrumental twist of piano and bass going haywire with A Dreadful Side Scene. Which is a perfect ending to the album to keep your blood flowing for Dakrya’s next adventure of the theatrics and who knows which road will lay ahead for them and rest assured, the journey has just begun.

Barclay James Harvest - A Concert for the People (Berlin)

It’s been nearly 30 years since Barclay James Harvest performed live in front of 250,000 people in West Germany in Reichtag which was next to the Berlin Wall which divided between the east and the west before tearing it down for freedom in 1989. It was also filmed as well which chronicled the band’s set list in their home town in England. At the time according to the liner notes, the Berlin Senate Cultural Committee decided on where would be the best place to put a free festival, so what BJH did was to return to Germany in August of 1980 to do a concert there only to find themselves between the two since the beginnings of the Cold War in 1947 and put them in lock down by the East.

A Concert for the People (Berlin) offers a definitive momentum in BJH’s career. It wasn’t just that the band was there to promote a concert for the fans, but a concert to bring peace and putting an end to the division of Germany between the East and West along with the Cold War. The booklet features pictures of the gig, promos, and screen shots of the filmed performance live including a 45 RPM of Child of the Universe and the B-side, Back to the Wall, which was off on Turn of the Tide in 1981. For this amazing performance, some of the classics were brought back including the favorites, Mockingbird, Hymn, and Child of the Universe to name a few.

As the band now a trio with Woolly Wolstenholme going solo with his band, Maestoso, they brought Kevin McAlea and Colin Browne, went onstage and brought a magnificent reception. When you hear this, not only the audience are getting a real kick out of this, but it brought power and magic in the atmosphere with the music and the touch they bring to the stage. You have the eerie emotional ballad, In Memory of the Martyrs, a haunting tribute to the brave heroes who fought and died for survival by jumping to get over the Berlin Wall and moving into the West while escaping from communism in the East. The roaring 6-minute introduction of ‘80s film-noir sound of Love on the Line, brings the new wave sound to a standstill while the lukewarm mysterious version of Mockingbird sends tears down in your eyes.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Lady sounds very much in the reminiscent of AOR (Album Orientated Rock) as if they were resembling the new prog sound with: Starcastle and Kansas combining together while guitarist John Lees creates a moody atmosphere on his solo that makes it very Floyd-like as Nova Lepidoptera starts off as a space symphonic orchestra with the moog and explosive string quartet on the keyboards and then it turns into a mourning and heartfelt futuristic journey into space as Lees and Holroyd create magic singing together in the bridge as if they were communicating with guitar and bass setting the tearful structure that is joyous and calm-like.

Sip of Wine sounds very much a tribute to Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill but almost as if it was a sequel to Gabriel’s hit, it has strong vocals and better rhythm as well as the late Mel Pritchard creates a jazz beat on the drums to set the uplifting number to give John and Les creative structure. Same thing with Life is for Living as it becomes a message to bring peace to put an end to communism rather than being a dance and Hawaiian number, but it is an angelic piece that is well-done performed live as you can tell the audience are getting a real kick out it clapping and singing along to the band. Then we get to the goose bumping yet breath-taking stunning live take of the fan-favorite, Child of the Universe.

This is where the audience, in my mind, are fighting back tears and singing along to the number saying, “Always there to join in someone else's fight/I didn't ask to be born and I don't ask to die I'm an endless dream, a gene machine/That cannot reason why.” For me, this is about fighting for survival and dreaming to bring peace in Germany and never to die to surrender, but to join hands and live to fight for freedom. The soaring tribute of Berlin, is one of the most unbelievable songs that would send chills down your spine to give it a real punch in the gut.

Loving is Easy is in the similarities of Progressive Pop. It’s a very interesting number yet in the style of the Lennon/McCartney reminiscent, but very quirky and heavy at the same time and the closing finale, Hymn, has more of an edgier sound performed live with its prog folk acoustic sound in the mind of John Lennon that is the answer to Give Peace a Chance. A moving live album representing peace and joy of the beginning of the new sound for BJH lays straight ahead for the band and would have mixed opinions for the fans by drawing lines in the sand, but this is the last real album for Barclay James Harvest that is worth the price.

The Gods - Genesis

Often as regarded for the blueprint for Uriah Heep and thanks to the presence of former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, The Gods was a band with a psychedelic flavor to offer rather than being a giant sound of prog arena rock. And their debut album, Genesis, released in 1969, is a fascinating work blending with Beatlesque lyrics lurking with the Psych-Pop sound meets The Piper at the Gates of Dawn-era and a flair of soaring organ sounds thanks to Ken Hensley’s compositions to the tone with a bit of Avant-Garde chipmunk voices to help out at the end.

Formed in 1965, they started as schoolmates in Hatfield and soon opened for Cream combining love-song lyrics and picking interesting covers they worked on. Can you imagine Paul McCartney giving the band, Hey Bulldog as a single for the movie, Yellow Submarine? Not only did The Gods did a remarkable job capturing the spirit of the song, but the result is magnificent and very wonderful – they would have made the hippies at Woodstock go batshit crazy of melodic wonderous flaming fire as Ken Hensley unleashes a pounding piano work that have expected from The Beatles surprised reaction along with adding a horn section by making it pastoral, you got yourself a weekend. But this is the complete measure from the band’s talent – they could have been signed to Apple Records, but here on Genesis, it’s all here as evidential proof from start to finish.

However on the reissue released sixteen years ago on the Repertoire label, it proves that The Gods weren’t just the turning point for Ken Hensley. The band features – John Glascock (Carmen, Jethro Tull) on Bass Guitar, Lee Kerslake (Uriah Heep, Toe Fat) on drums, and Joe Konas on guitar and vocals. The opening track, Towards The Skies, is very aggressive done by Ken’s organ work and Lee’s rumbling drum work as it features dazzling guitar work in the rein of Hendrix meets The Move with a lot of heavy grooves to fill the atmosphere while the mellowing mellotron dreamland beauty of Candles Getting Shorter represents the balladry of Procol Harum’s self-titled debut album.

You’re My Life is very much proto-hard rock as Joe Konas does some crazy guitar solo as if he was Ritchie Blackmore while Lee battles with him on the drums as they look at each other to see who can create the best composition work they would do. On eerie numbers such as Looking Glass, The Gods almost could have recorded this album with Bo Hansson and Janne Karlsson (or maybe an early version of Spooky Tooth thanks to the falsetto vocals and disturbing numbers) than becoming the best band in the beginnings of Progressive Metal they are with Uriah Heep as if Lewis Carroll would have lived, he would have written lyrics for them

Misleading Colours is in the realm of the west coast sound of the psychedelic scene of the U.S. mostly almost a sequel to Hendrix’s Purple Haze, but with a vengeance thanks to wild guitar and organ sound as they do some Psych-blues in the midsection. Radio Show is a driving rocker, thanks to Ken Hensley’s upbeat sound as he would do with Uriah Heep. The song has a horn section, pop lyrical background in the realm of the Revolver-era, time signature changes the arrangement, but it’s very much something that The Beatles could have worked on.

Ken Hensley takes the microphone as he sings in a mournful beauty with the somber uplifting number, Plastic Horizon. It has the disturbing tones that Hensley does with the organ and adding a lot of his harmonic vocalization and you could feel that he’s written the score for Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point. Farthing Man is another upbeat number with a lot of the harmonic vocals in the background and pop melodies while the guitar comes into play with a lot of psych-work and making it one of the most unbelievable numbers out there. The title sounds very Dr. Seuss in a comic book type of way, but it fits perfectly.

I Never Knew, is the 5-minute epic and making it very Prog-Psych thanks to the fairy tale lyrics, sweet mellotron string sounds, vibrative organ works, and excellent rhythm section to make it twisted and mind-boggling as the guitar solo comes back into the frame to close the track with a vengeance while the finale, Time and Eternity, ends with a heavy metal psychedelic romper. The guitar rhythm, drums, and organ, including a la-la section makes the band sound like if they could have been in Roger Chapman’s Family.

The bonus tracks feature the eerie psych vibration of Somewhere in the Street, the pastoral version of the Beatles (before they recorded their version) Hey Bulldog, and harmonica blues rock in the style of Them meets Cream on Real Love Guaranteed. Genesis is an essential lost underground psychedelic album that deserves attention and offers the beginnings of Uriah Heep.

Mastodon - Crack The Skye

With the follow up of Blood Mountain, their fourth album, it seems that Mastodon have a lot of tricks up their sleeve. Their new album released last year, Crack The Skye, is a magical metallic rollercoaster ride. Although it has seven tracks including a 10 and 12-minute epics that is almost as Prog as far as the eye can see, they show no sign of stopping. It sounds like a metallic representative versions of King Crimson meets The Mars Volta meets Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats-era. Thrash at one point, fierce and twisted, but it comes up with all of the ingredients it needs to come up with one amazing album from start to finish.

Now I have to admit something, this is my first time getting into Mastodon, and let me say I’m getting started to enjoy this band very much and they are carrying the Prog Metal torch into the night. I’ve listened to Crack The Skye twice now and this is an album that you need to buy. I was a little skeptical at first because I thought they were ripping off Dream Theater. I was dead wrong. Here, is an album that will blow your socks off and take Prog and Math Rock to another level like you’ve never heard before.

The album itself is a dynamic concept that allowed the band to use free rein, but go off like a bat out of hell in strange time changes like fireworks going off like crazy. The music is a combination of middle-eastern rock, heavy metal, psychedelic-prog, and driven steady beats that takes the listener by surprise of a band that is completely out of this world. Now mainstream is considered a dirty word, but for Progressive Rock, is no longer a dirty word anymore if you are getting a lengthy introduction to the music right now.

Opening track Oblivion is a frightening track that would fit tightly on Black Sabbath’s earlier albums like Master of Reality. It adds the doom metal disturbance to the mix and the chaotic insanity for Mastodon to move forward into the Prog Doom sound and moving away from the Sludge sound since forming in 1999. As I mentioned before there is a nod to the middle-eastern rock sound on Crack The Skye, with the Egyptian opening Robert Fripp-esque guitar introduction on Divinations as they get the gears guitar roaring, screaming vocals, and fast-sped time signatures that are similar to the Red-era of King Crimson and the Master of Puppets-era of Metallica that was left off during the sessions.

For all lovers of the Progressive Metal sound that is a running finish line throughout Crack The Skye, there are more twisted and insane tracks that will keep you going for more until the very end. The intensity kicks in on Quintessence as it is a blend of Math Metal and Psych-Prog that is almost could have been used in a rock operatic suite with the drums pounding like crazy and guitars just roaring like crazy to add the tension up a notch. Then we go right into the 10-minute epic centerpiece, The Czar.

Starting off with an eerie organ introduction that is in the style of The Beatles Blue Jay Way and then the guitars come in giving a haunting call while the bass follows the groove along with heavy duty vocalizations. Mind you, this is something that is out of this world to give you goose bumps all over your body. And the lyrics of paying the price and fighting to survive with: “Don't stay run away /He has ordered assassination /Don't stay run away /The henchmen are gathered and waiting /Don't stay run away Your role as usurper is found out /Don't stay run away /Tsarina has warned of the danger.” This number definitely could have been in the trailer for Dead Space 2 while Ghost of Karelia features some beautiful militant roars from guitar and bass are racing to the finish line and the singing itself gets you by the feet.

And then we come to the last two final tracks of the album. The title track has a hypnotic guitar driven sound along with a shattering vocalization and this reminded me a lot of Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt’s growling death metal voice and calmful as well as if it’s in the mind of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. And very ‘70s eclectic prog at times that would barely climb the mountain tops of time singatures. The 13-minute finale, The Last Baron doesn’t just simply end the album it is a perfect ending to close the curtain on Crack The Skye. It’s a calm-like relaxed number and breathtaking at the same time to be considered a live favorite for the Mastodon fans for the band to do.

Nothing can beat around the bush from this tour de force magnetic album as a Rock Opera. The songwriting and concept is a creative energy force with a lot of brainstorming, Crack The Skye is an overwhelming progressive metal album that is out of the ball park.

Supertramp - Breakfast In America

One of the most quintessential albums of all time, Breakfast in America was Supertramp’s biggest selling album of all time. Thanks to the hit singles: The Logical Song, Take the Long Way Home, Goodbye Stranger, and the title track. It gave Supertramp the top 10 hits and selling 6 million copies including the album as it skyrocketed to number one in the Billboard Charts in 1979. They became a favorite including Beatle Paul McCartney who admired the band during the album’s release. It gave Supertramp, the introduction of what’s called “Progressive Pop” as it opened the floodgates to the States.

The album is at the core of the Prog Pop genre. As Paul McCartney described them his “new favorite band,” is really a great opportunity to be appreciated by a Beatle. You could tell that he listened to their earlier albums: Incredibly Stamped, Crime of the Century, and Crisis? What Crisis? Unlike Pop bands like 10cc and the Alan Parsons Project, Supertramp had Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson who were the answer to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They wrote some great material including Dreamer, Bloody Well Right, Give A Little Bit, and Ain’t Nobody But Me.

But the tension between the two started to grow during the making of the album. Originally, Rick Davies hated the title and wanted to use titles like: Working Title or Hello Stranger, but Roger won the verdict and the result is history. The cover was done by Mike Doug and used Kate Murtagh portraying as the Statue of Liberty holding a breakfast menu and holding a glass of orange juice as the city of the big apple is used with kitchen utensils, salt & pepper shakers, coffee cups, and two boxes shown in the style of the World Trade Center while the back cover shows the band members ordering breakfast, reading the newspaper as Kate pours a cup of coffee to one of the band members.

It was the first time that the album used a Wurlitzer Electric Piano, which is a 64-note instrument from an octave note of the major chord of C and forming a pickup system using an electrostatic system from a DC voltage to fit a mechanical sustain pedal. And it fitted well for Breakfast in America. The sound had been used on Crime and Crisis, but it was never used on any of Supertramp’s career and it made it the first album to be one of finest examples to use a Wurlitzer. It was released on March 29, 1979, where it charted for six weeks.

Breakfast in America became the biggest selling album since Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in 1973. A work of unique geniuses, a usage of Beatlesque lyrics, pop ballads, and trying to make it to hit the big time in Hollywood, makes the album a highly mannered blockbuster smash and a great idea to have a sense of humor. From the opening soar of excitement on Gone Hollywood which deals with the creeps in the city of glamour and dealing with how despair and the destruction of L.A. can be a disgusting place to be as if the character wished he never set foot in the city. The Logical Song which has a strong connection the Prog-Pop power of the Beatles. Hodgson’s electric piano pop sound provides a strong groove alongside John Helliwell’s soulful sax solo while the song deals with the loss of innocence and condemning the education system. Rick’s composition of Goodbye Stranger sits in between the Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys sound and a twist of 10cc while parodying the Bee Gees.

The title track in which tells the story of the person’s introduction to the flavor of America and finding out if they have kippers in Texas as it priors to the up tempo beat and craves of the melodic statue of curiosity. Oh Darling is a perfect dance rocking ballad. Davies soulful voice on and the keyboard as well as Hodgson comes up with Lennon-like guitar sound as the two sing as if Lennon/McCartney are really pleased of what the two are doing despite the tension. Take The Long Way Home is a haunting mournful composition which features Davies disturbing Harmonica introduction as Hodgson brings the Prog Pop sound to another world with finding out how home is a long way to be with a surprising melody that became a top 10 hit single. The piano ballad filled with emotions shows Roger how good a singer he is with the heartfelt calmness of Lord Is It Mine while Just Another Nervous Wreck could have been written for the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sessions.

Casual Conversations is very laidback in the style of the Aja-era of Steely Dan. It has a jazzy groove with the electric piano is very calm and almost is set in a smoky nightclub in the 1950s with its mellow atmosphere along with John’s sax solo to fill the nightclub scene as the next epic track closes the album very well like a storybook. Child of Vision, which is a feud-like song between Davies and Hodgson who are like brothers during this number. It deals with the creative differences they have between each other. The band almost are into attack mode as Rick plays this magnificent piano solo along with the keyboard duking it out while John closes the track with a short yet beautiful sax solo to finish album off well.

From that moment on, the relationship between Davies and Hodgson became strained after finishing the Breakfast in America tour as the battles became increased during the Famous Last Words sessions. Roger decided he had enough and departed the band in 1983 to raise his children and be a father and pursuing a solo career while Davies continued under the Supertramp banner and now are going to tour for their 40th anniversary and performing Hodgson’s songs which have pissed Roger off big time. But I won’t go into that direction.

Breakfast in America has put Progressive Pop into a crowning achievement through the mind of the two singers. It is one of Supertramp’s finest album of the decade 30 years later.