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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Tony Banks The Fugitive: Two Disc Hardback Deluxe Expanded Edition Review by Gary Hill This was Tony Banks’ second solo album. It’s a lot more pop oriented than the first one. I’d say that it’s not as strong, either. That said, I really do like Banks’ voice (he wasn’t the singer first time around). Mind you, this is a good album. It’s just not the proggiest thing he’s done. This set is nice. It comes in a hardcover book format with the remastered CD and a DVD that has a surround sound mix of the album along with a music video. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2016 Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

This Is Love There is a bit of a reggae edge to this. It’s a bouncy kind of electronic cut. The vocals bring more of a pop element. This is fun, but not really proggy.

Man of Spells I like this cut quite a bit. It’s electronic pop in a lot of ways. That said, it’s more prog related than the opener was. There are some hints of Genesis-styled music, too.

And the Wheels Keep Turning This is a bouncy little number. It’s really feels a lot like Genesis in a lot of ways. It’s a fun tune, really. In fact, it’s one of my favorites here.

Say You'll Never This piece really feels a lot like a cross between The Beatles and Klaatu. It is a mid-tempo number with a bit of a dreamy atmosphere to it.

Thirty-Three's This keyboard dominated instrumental is really classy stuff. It’s one of my favorite cuts here. It’s one of the most prog oriented things (and most Genesis-like), too.

By You More in the electronic pop vein, for some reason this reminds me quite a bit of The Buggles. There are some cool rocking bits later with some processed vocals.

At the Edge of Night I like this one a lot. It’s more of a hard rocker. It has some of the Genesis rocker element. It’s probably closer, though to the Beatles influenced bands of the 1970s. It has a lot of energy and some great hooks.

Charm Starting with weird keyboard sounds, very electronic like (like an old computer game), this is another instrumental. It’s more of a proggy piece and more symphonic and rock based keyboard sounds are added to the mix as it moves forward. It works back out to the computer game stuff to end.

Moving Under Here we get a song that combines Genesis with The Beatles and Klaatu. This is fun stuff. In some ways this reminds me of Al Stewart quite a bit. The instrumental section is extended, powerful and brings us more into proggy territory.

Bonus Tracks

K2 Although this really does have a pop rock vibe to it, there are prog elements at play. I like this one a lot. It definitely has more of that Al Stewart kind of thing going on, but there are Beatles elements, too. I have to say that I think I like better than a lot of the other stuff on the set. I would have probably put it onto the original disc in place of something else.

Something Never This is probably the most Genesis like cut here. It’s an energetic rocker that’s very cool. Banks’ vocals again bring to mind Al Stewart.

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