Asylum in Bloomington, MN

More highly melodic
progressive rock
, this time built around longer songs and extended instrumental passages -- among the latter,
"Munich,"
which was alternately titled
"Munich 1938: Appeasement Was the Cry; Munich 1970: Mine to Do or Die,"
was surprisingly accessible at nine minutes and change, built on
Peter Jennings
' extended organ cadenzas embellished with
John Culley
's crisp electric guitar flourishes, all wrapped around a pleasing array of melodies that easily carry the song's length. The three extended numbers that comprised the original LP's side two also make for fascinating listening,
Angus Cullen
's
McCartneyesque
vocals calling to mind
the Moody Blues
in their prime, while the band's hard, at times slightly jazzy, instrumental attack evokes echoes of
Caravan
with, perhaps, a touch of the most energetic of
Deep Purple
Jon Lord
-spawned
classical
experiments. The group's downfall may have been their reliance on virtuosity, as opposed to raw wattage and brute force in their attack -- with
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
,
Keith Emerson
was bringing crowds of 20,000 teenagers at a time to their feet by abusing his organ, while as part of
Cressida
on
"Let Them Come When They Will"
plays the kind of break that would have wowed them in a club in front of maybe 200 people (while
Cullen
's singing takes on a resemblance to
Jim Morrison
in the middle of the track). It's all sort of the difference between relating to one's music and audience on a retail basis, as opposed to wholesale --
never got past the former, and it makes
Asylum
a very pleasing album but also a very demanding one. ~ Bruce Eder