Music Street Journal - Music News & Reviews

Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Paige Cora Instant in Time Review by Gary Hill I've landed this under progressive rock. It's not precisely a tight fit. If you use the term "art rock," though, this fits very well. The main element that makes this so artsy is the use of classical instrumentation. That really elevates this beyond standard pop rock. The thing is, it's all so strong, anyway. This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2020 Volume 2. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.

Track by Track Review

Bicycle Bells Symphonic instrumentation opens this. As the arrangement fills out a bit, piano takes a more prominent role. That serves as the backdrop for the first vocals of the cut. When it shifts into the next movement, more of a rocking element joins, but it's still informed and built around the symphonic. This cut shifts and grows and evolves as it continues. It's energetic, unique and quite tasty.

Stray Balloons Piano opens this with some strings. The vocals come in over that arrangement, and the piece begins to grow from there. This thing gets dramatic and powerful as it continues.

The Good Side of Desire While this still has plenty of classical instrumentation, it's much more purely rock music based. It's energetic, driving and so tasty. It has some great hooks and really works well. The guitar really brings a lot of cool rock sound to it.

Instant in Time The title track is more of a pure rock song. I like the multiple layers of vocals. The organ lends some retro texture. This is an energetic number that holds up well and brings variety to the table.

Facing the Grass While this also has a lot of pure rock in the mix, the classical elements bring the proggy concepts. This is artsy in a lot of ways, too.

Long Goodbye Piano and symphonic strings make up the bulk of the instrumental arrangement on this. The vocals bring drama and passion to the piece. It's a very artistic kind of number. There is a stripped back mellower movement at the end that is so classy, too.

Echoes While this has more of that pure rock sound in the mix, there is a healthy helping of jazz stylings here, too. It's a bit more mainstream than some of the rest, but it's still quite artistic and intriguing.

Rafa's Theme This is just a short piano solo. It's quite pretty.

Forest Pine Folk, art rock and more merge on this mellow number. This grows with a decidedly progressive arrangement, getting dreamy and quite lush as it does so.

More CD Reviews

Metal/Prog Metal

Non-Prog

Progressive Rock

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
© 2024 Music Street Journal Site design and programming by Studio Fyra, Inc./Beetcafe.com