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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Pardon The Interruption Hot N' Fresh Review by Gary Hill I've landed this under progressive rock. I can see people disagreeing with that. Here's my reasoning. First, there is some prog on a number of the songs. In fact, there is quite a bit on several of them, and at least a little on most. There is a blending of rock and jazz, which translates to me as fusion, and we put fusion under prog. Besides that, just the creative angle of this qualifies it to some degree. Whether you agree with that assessment or not, this is inventive and yet downright fun music. It's just a good time. This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2023 Volume 3 More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2023.

Track by Track Review

Opa! This killer jazzy jam is packed full of funk and style. As the vocals join in a non-lyrical way, it takes on a sort of dreamy groove. It moves back out to the main structure after a quick "Opa!," but then it wanders into some classy space rock like zones for a time. We're taken back out into the jazzy, funky exploration from there. Although this is mostly instrumental, it does return to that vocal movement before it's over.

We Can Figure It Out Funk, jazz and hard rock all merge on this tune. There is a bit of a soulful edge to this thing, as well. It's a fun romp as it gets going. Parts of this make me think of Frank Zappa to some degree. The instrumental break takes this into a killer fusion styled jam.

Cindy Will Prevail The blend of sounds on this is pretty amazing. This has some musical theater elements, jazz, Americana, old school rock and roll and more built into it. This is bouncy, fun and so creative.

Construction Man This one turns decidedly proggy at times. It has a lot of killer rock and some jazz built into it, too. While fitting with the rest of the music here, this might be my favorite tune of the bunch. There is a cool journey into almost freeform spacey jazz rock later in the track before the saxophone really wails over a more driving movement.

Rhythm Is Right The jam in the middle of the track takes this in some killer jazzy space rock territory. This has elements that make me think of Pink Floyd just a little. Yet there are some soulful portions on the vocal movements. It's another with a great mix of sounds. The closing jam on this might be fairly short, but it's also incendiary.

It's Complicated Funk and proggy elements blend as this gets going. The guitar on the tune brings an almost Discipline era King Crimson sound. This number manages to reinforce the prog concepts, while also bringing plenty of funk and other things to it. A cool mellower exploration is heard later. The killer instrumental break later really brings both jazz and prog leanings to the forefront.

I Used To Drive A lot of this is somewhat slower. There is a mainstream pop rock vibe to it, but also plenty of proggy things going on.

Higher This cut seems to blend reggae with a jazz vibe. It has some cool jazz exploration at times.

Life Is Fantastic Funk is back in style on this cool tune. It also has plenty of jazz and more in the mix. The instrumental section on this is absolutely on fire.

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