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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Darryl Way Children of the Cosmos Review by Gary Hill This is an amazing disc. For my money, it’s better than the previous album that I reviewed from Darryl Way. This is more obviously progressive rock. It has that mixed with jazz, space rock and classical as the driving factor. Other than a couple songs mid-track that didn’t quite do it for me, this might have made my “best of 2014” list. Even with those two songs, it’s an awesome disc. My main complaint is that, other than crediting a woman by the first name of “Rosie” for the vocals on “Fire with Fire,” I have no idea who besides Way plays on this. The music is amazing even without that information, but it would have been nice had they included more details. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Children of the Cosmos Atmospheric sounds start this. As it grows out from there the violin comes across. As the vocals join this feels like a combination of spacey prog and fusion. There is definitely a powerful symphonic prog element to this piece. I love this song. It’s so potent and has some great shifts and turns.

Spooks There is an awesome science fiction like groove to this piece. It has such a meaty keyboard sound that it’s scary. As good as the opener was, this is even better. It’s definitely a fun one.

The Best of Times Hard rocking, space rock, blues rock and prog all combine here. It has a great energy to it and the sound is quite tasty.

Nature's Way A bit more of a mainstream song, this is bouncy, melodic progressive rock with a catchy song structure. This is playful and fun.

Summer of Love Here get an energized number that, as one might guess, has a lot of psychedelia in it. There is a mellow interlude mid-track, too. The exploratory instrumental section later that eventually serves as the outro is classy, too. It makes me think of Hawkwind just a bit at times. This is another fun one.

Don't Look Back (feat. Pachelbel's Canon) There seems to be some hints of reggae in this thing. That said, this is more or less jazzy prog with a bouncy accessible hook. As you might guess, the mid-section has a lot of classical music built into it.

Fire with Fire This is more or less a progressive rock ballad. It stands out because of the female vocals. It has energy and a lot of beauty, despite the more or less ballad-based arrangement. It gets powered up into a hard edged jam later, too.

Lagan Love An instrumental, there is definitely a bit of a world music air to this. It’s got a lot of energy, despite a rather mellow and melodic arrangement. The violin soloing really sells it, though.

A Winter's Tale This piece is rather gentle. There is an almost folk music element at play here. Although this has its moments, it’s a bit too “adult contemporary” for my tastes.

A Modern Tale There is a lot going on here. At times it feels like a world folk kind of song. At other points it wanders more into pure progressive rock territory. It’s another strong cut on a disc that’s full of strong music.

An American Tale I like this one a lot. It has a real moving rhythm section. There is an organic sound and a lot of energy. Jazz and progressive rock seem to merge here with a more mainstream sound. There is also a section later in the piece that has an almost Beatles-like vibe to it. The various sounds seem to work together in a combination as this works toward it’s powerhouse conclusion.

Sergey Classical music is at the heart of this instrumental. That said, the powered up sections land in the progressive rock area of the world. Of course, after those initial rocking sections, this really does move out into pure classical for the later sections.

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