Refugee [Remastered & Expanded Edition] in Bloomington, MN

Some four years after the demise of
the Nice
, bassist/vocalist
Lee Jackson
and drummer
Brian Davison
finally found a way of profiting from the
prog rock
gravy train they'd helped set in motion. With
Patrick Moraz
filling
Keith Emerson
's capacious boots, they recorded an album that in many ways surpasses anything
ever recorded, and one whose ambition more than matched
Emerson
's new outfit,
ELP
. It helped that along with the standard panoply of
prog
keyboards -- organ, piano, clavinet, Mellotron, and Moog --
Moraz
brought with him a
jazz
feel that clearly energized the rhythm section. Though there's no shortage of de rigueur complex time signatures here, this is also a band with fire in its belly, nowhere more so than in the last five minutes of the extended
"Credo,"
where
Jackson
's bass runs and
Davison
's drumming combine to truly thrilling effect.
's voice has always divided fans between those who find it an appalling croak, and those who relished its wry phrasing, but it has never sounded more impassioned than it does here. Perhaps the instrumentals
"Papillon"
and
"Ritt Mickley"
are a little too pleased with themselves to strike an emotional response. Yet elsewhere, despite the fearsome complexity of
's arrangements and the odd lapse into portentousness, there is usually a soaring melody line to quell any doubts. All told
Refugee
's only album delivered enough to suggest that they could have delivered at least another two killer blows before
punk
finished them off. In the event, it functioned purely as a convenient shop window for
Yes
, who were in the market for a new keyboard player after
Rick Wakeman
's departure. ~ Christopher Evans