Saturday 18 May 2013

Happy The Man - Crafty Hands (1978)



The second album from this US band. A band who sounds like noone else. That said, they sounds like Oblivion Sun, the new US band whose includes most of the Happy The Man members.

Crafty Hands is very much down the unique music and sound path. The band and this album sounds like a mix of Yes, Gentle Giant and Genesis. Most of the music here is instrumental. Instrumental as in a mix of symphonic prog, eclectic prog and fusion. Long, lingering melody lines which also taking a lot from new age. Then the band fires of an pretty commercial AOR like track with vocals and a conventional radio friendly sound before the band retreat into themselves with a couple of closing eclectic symphonic prog tracks.

Very strange. Very strange. Very strange.

...And not so easy to review or even form, let alone express an opinion on. Happy The Man was a truly original band. One of a kind.

I do like this album a lot though. The instrumentals, that is. The AOR interlude falls a bit flat on it's face. The rest of the album is good. Do I understand this album ? Not really. But I still find it good and I find this band a bit of a mystery. But I like them.

3 points

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