Music Banter - View Single Post - I know what I like: Trollheart's History of Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal

Trollheart · 06-09-2021, 02:08 PM

Album title: Gracious!
Artist: Gracious
Nationality: English
Label: Vertigo
Chronology: Debut
Grade: C
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: Probably little to none; a year later they had disbanded and then they got back together in 1990 for one album. Hardly setting the prog world alight, were they?
Tracklisting: Introduction/Heaven/Hell/Fugue in “D” Minor/The Dream
Comments: I’m not sure if this is a concept album, though looking at the song titles I would wonder. It kicks off in more a hard rock vein really than prog, hard growling guitar almost reminiscent of a nascent Black Sabbath, good vocal harmonies; sort of a sense of very early Rush about this too. Not half bad. This band certainly appear to rely more on guitars than keys, with Alan Cowderoy providing the licks, then it’s the turn of the hilariously named Martin Kitcat on the organs and keys to lead in “Heaven” with a, well, heavenly lush opening, slowing everything down as Cowderoy dials it right back on the guitar, Paul Davis coming on on the twelve-string acoustic on a breezy little Beatlesesque passage. Very nice, and very evocative.

It’s well past the midpoint before the vocals come in, and somehow it works perfectly, good vocal harmonies again adding to the clear voice of Cowderoy then a really sweet acapella from the rest of the band and a bright little piano section. “Hell” then features, rather appropriately, a descending run on the piano into dark, doomy organ and buzzing guitar, everything slowed to almost (say it) funereal pace, giving a great sense of ominousness and oppression, claustrophobia and paranoia. Some fine manic work on the piano really helps before it breaks out into a proper run, again ending up at the bass end and then kicking into an almost “Iron Man” melody on the guitar. Again it’s more than halfway in before the vocals make an appearance, and even then it seems just to go “La, la, la, la” leading to a very early rap (not really, but a spoken piece) and then an extended ragtime section on the piano, which is admittedly rather weird, the vocal going mono and tinny to fit in with the new style I guess.

That turns into something of a “knees up”, which is very odd, for who would party in Hell, you would assume to be a not unreasonable question. Sadly, though this started very well and was going along nicely, I think they’ve lost themselves somewhere along the line here. Getting very confusing now and hard to follow the idea, if there is one. “Fugue in “D” Minor” is, well, a fugue in D Minor. Not a lot to say; sounds like it’s being played on harpsichord, maybe a twelve-string guitar? Pretty boring really. The closer then is the epic, running for almost seventeen minutes, quite a feat in 1970.

Despite its length, “The Dream” does not appear to be a suite, broken up into parts, sections or movements, but one long track from beginning to end. This isn’t unique of course, but conventional wisdom at this time usually had bands split up such long tracks into recognisable portions and naming them, but Gracious have chosen not to do this. Will it stretch the song out beyond endurance? We’ll see. Kicks off with yet another classical standard, and one of my favourites, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”, but then breaks into a rather beautiful piano ballad with Beach Boys-style harmonies which gives way to a pretty funky guitar solo kind of reminiscent of early ZZ Top maybe.

Now we have Park exercising his jazz chops, which are to be fair pretty impressive, and what sounds like brass, but I don’t see any credit for same. A spoken piece then over this, and the organ goes a little wild before it all settles back down into the previous rhythm. The voice (won’t call it a vocal as it’s really more spoken than sung) is quite off-putting, though now there is a vocal and it’s much better. So where are we? More than halfway, and it’s, um, getting a little strange now. I fear these guys are trying too hard to make this oh wow so weird and strange and out there man, when in fact it’s just annoying and comes across as very very unfocussed.

Dropping back into some decent music now, good guitar solo and piano, rocking along nicely and taking us into the eleventh minute, but it kind of goes off-track again fairly quickly. Then we get the sound of an alarm clock ringing (oh how original! Though maybe it was, in 1970. I keep forgetting this is over fifty years old) and a soft piano and guitar piece presumably wrapping the track up. Sort of loops back around to the original beginning with some sharp guitar interspersed with those vocal harmonies, except I don’t see any sign of a resolution, as I had expected to. A very powerful ending, kind of channelling Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War.” Yeah.

Favourite track(s): Heaven
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: Another case of some good ideas, great musicianship but confused concept. I would have thought they were happy with this album, but I think a lot of people may have been quite baffled by it.
Personal Rating:

Legacy Rating:

Final Rating:

06-09-2021, 02:08 PM	#217 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Gracious! Artist: Gracious Nationality: English Label: Vertigo Chronology: Debut Grade: C Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero The Trollheart Factor: 0 Landmark value: Probably little to none; a year later they had disbanded and then they got back together in 1990 for one album. Hardly setting the prog world alight, were they? Tracklisting: Introduction/Heaven/Hell/Fugue in “D” Minor/The Dream Comments: I’m not sure if this is a concept album, though looking at the song titles I would wonder. It kicks off in more a hard rock vein really than prog, hard growling guitar almost reminiscent of a nascent Black Sabbath, good vocal harmonies; sort of a sense of very early Rush about this too. Not half bad. This band certainly appear to rely more on guitars than keys, with Alan Cowderoy providing the licks, then it’s the turn of the hilariously named Martin Kitcat on the organs and keys to lead in “Heaven” with a, well, heavenly lush opening, slowing everything down as Cowderoy dials it right back on the guitar, Paul Davis coming on on the twelve-string acoustic on a breezy little Beatlesesque passage. Very nice, and very evocative. It’s well past the midpoint before the vocals come in, and somehow it works perfectly, good vocal harmonies again adding to the clear voice of Cowderoy then a really sweet acapella from the rest of the band and a bright little piano section. “Hell” then features, rather appropriately, a descending run on the piano into dark, doomy organ and buzzing guitar, everything slowed to almost (say it) funereal pace, giving a great sense of ominousness and oppression, claustrophobia and paranoia. Some fine manic work on the piano really helps before it breaks out into a proper run, again ending up at the bass end and then kicking into an almost “Iron Man” melody on the guitar. Again it’s more than halfway in before the vocals make an appearance, and even then it seems just to go “La, la, la, la” leading to a very early rap (not really, but a spoken piece) and then an extended ragtime section on the piano, which is admittedly rather weird, the vocal going mono and tinny to fit in with the new style I guess. That turns into something of a “knees up”, which is very odd, for who would party in Hell, you would assume to be a not unreasonable question. Sadly, though this started very well and was going along nicely, I think they’ve lost themselves somewhere along the line here. Getting very confusing now and hard to follow the idea, if there is one. “Fugue in “D” Minor” is, well, a fugue in D Minor. Not a lot to say; sounds like it’s being played on harpsichord, maybe a twelve-string guitar? Pretty boring really. The closer then is the epic, running for almost seventeen minutes, quite a feat in 1970. Despite its length, “The Dream” does not appear to be a suite, broken up into parts, sections or movements, but one long track from beginning to end. This isn’t unique of course, but conventional wisdom at this time usually had bands split up such long tracks into recognisable portions and naming them, but Gracious have chosen not to do this. Will it stretch the song out beyond endurance? We’ll see. Kicks off with yet another classical standard, and one of my favourites, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”, but then breaks into a rather beautiful piano ballad with Beach Boys-style harmonies which gives way to a pretty funky guitar solo kind of reminiscent of early ZZ Top maybe. Now we have Park exercising his jazz chops, which are to be fair pretty impressive, and what sounds like brass, but I don’t see any credit for same. A spoken piece then over this, and the organ goes a little wild before it all settles back down into the previous rhythm. The voice (won’t call it a vocal as it’s really more spoken than sung) is quite off-putting, though now there is a vocal and it’s much better. So where are we? More than halfway, and it’s, um, getting a little strange now. I fear these guys are trying too hard to make this oh wow so weird and strange and out there man, when in fact it’s just annoying and comes across as very very unfocussed. Dropping back into some decent music now, good guitar solo and piano, rocking along nicely and taking us into the eleventh minute, but it kind of goes off-track again fairly quickly. Then we get the sound of an alarm clock ringing (oh how original! Though maybe it was, in 1970. I keep forgetting this is over fifty years old) and a soft piano and guitar piece presumably wrapping the track up. Sort of loops back around to the original beginning with some sharp guitar interspersed with those vocal harmonies, except I don’t see any sign of a resolution, as I had expected to. A very powerful ending, kind of channelling Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War.” Yeah. Favourite track(s): Heaven Least favourite track(s): Overall impression: Another case of some good ideas, great musicianship but confused concept. I would have thought they were happy with this album, but I think a lot of people may have been quite baffled by it. Personal Rating: Legacy Rating: Final Rating: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018