You can never go wrong with releases from Terry Draper. Draper first came to fame as part of the band Klaatu, but in more recent years he's released quite an impressive catalog of music. This new album is split into two halves, the "Bread" half that is more pop oriented with shorter songs and the "Cirkus" part with longer, proggier pieces. That is Draper's description, but I would say largely both parts of the album have both pop rock stuff and proggy. Then again, that's pretty much true of Klaatu, as well. As is always the case (and rightly so) Draper's music sounds rather Klaatu-like a lot of the time, but it does stretch out from there, too. Among the musicians joining Draper on this album are two names that should be familiar to MSJ readers, Fernando Perdomo and Jaimie Vernon.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2023  Volume 1. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2023.

There is a short burst of music, and then some spoken studio banter is heard. The cut works out from there to a bouncy pop rock number that's so much fun. This is cheery and bright. The "sunny day" part has some definite Beatles elements at play. The instrumental break that follows that is more proggy.

Sound effects like one might have heard in the old Roman Cirkus starts this. The cut drives out with a quirky jam that feels a lot like King Crimson. As it continues it has plenty of jazz and prog tendencies. It's a driving and cool prog rocker. It does get into some psychedelically tinged, Beatles-leaning stuff later, but even that is left-of-center and unusual.