Music Street Journal - Music News & Reviews

Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Rain Rabbit Rain Rabbit Review by Gary Hill I landed this under progressive rock, but I can see people arguing with that. First off, let me say that it's more AOR prog or even prog pop than pure progressive rock. There are some songs that are not prog, but even they generally have some hints of prog. The songs that I think qualify completely as prog are, as I said, not of the more adventurous variety, but prog nonetheless. While you might disagree with my placement of this set, I don't think you'll disagree with my assessment of this as a strong release. It has a nice range of sounds, but everything here is of high quality and works so well. This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2021 Volume 4. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2021.

Track by Track Review

Holding On While this is decidedly pop rock based, there is a real proggy edge to the piece. It has a great energy. I like the keyboard textures on this quite a bit. The tune reminds me of Savage Garden to some degree. This instrumental break is rather jazzy. The vocals get into some particularly powerful zones at times on this thing.

All I Want I dig the cool 80s groove to this piece. Perhaps a mix of Savage Garden with ABC might be a good comparison for this number. Yet there are still proggy things at play in the mix here.

Long Way Home That 80s thing is definitely in place here. This makes me think of ABC even more than the previous number did.

Save Me The hooks on this are positively infectious. The up-tempo rocker is both catchy and meaty. There are definite prog elements at play here. This is a lot of fun.

All the Right Things The keyboards on this bring some of the most decidedly prog sounds of the set. This has some funk in the mix along with a hard rocking edge. This is one of my favorite pieces here. It works so well. It's catchy, but also fairly complex. It's just so good.

Lies This is another with a lot of proggy elements at play. It's high energy, funky and so tasty. The vocal hooks are still catchy, and the rhythm section is so meaty.

Private Life Now, this is even proggier. There are some definite reggae elements here, too. This has some 80s music in the mix, as well. Overall, this is quite proggy, but still manages to be catchy. I would consider this tune to definitely be AOR prog, but with a real 80s music angle to it.

Bang and Blame Coming in a bit more restrained, this also has plenty of prog tendency built into it.

A Night Like This While this cut is more firmly in that 80s zone, the instrumental section brings some proggy vibes. I dig the saxophone solo. This reminds me quite a bit of The Cure.

Cuts You Up This is another piece that wears its progginess pretty conspicuously. Yet, there are still plenty of 80s elements here, too. This is another energetic cut. It's also a highlight of the set as far as I'm concerned. That makes this a great choice to end the album. This is quite powerful.

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