tisdag 13 mars 2018

ARGENT/NEXUS S EPC 65924 (-74) UK

Last Argent album with Russ Ballard, showing the group moving toward classic prog with longer elaborated instrumental parts and less "hit feeling". Still melodic, though not in an obvious crowd-pleasing way as the earlier "Hold Your Head Up" or "God Gave Rock'n'roll To You", instead with songs craving close attention and/or experienced listening to be fully embraced. To my ears they reached their peak with this blend of experimental and catchy on the 1975 LP "Counterpoints" (see earlier post), but already here you can enjoy that conflux of appealing and challanging...if that happens to be your thing. Personally I could skip a couple of the instrumental sections and instead enjoy some of Ballard's more "classic" songs - "Love" with its sweet vocal layers, the haunting "Thunder & Lightning" and the mighty "Gonna Meet My Maker". My Argent favorites will probably always be the eponymous debute and "Counterpoints", but they were a good band all the way and this is certainly worth while. Originally released on Epic in US and Canada (KE 32573), Downunder (ELPS 3685), Japan (ECPL-111) and a couple of European countries. Japan 2008 CD on Epic (EICP 1017). Premiere UK had label as shown here, thin glossy cover, lyric insert and "the inner sleeve" inner sleeve. (ZÖZ*)

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