 | Future Legends (1973)Genres: progressive rock |
review by thomas
Debut album with eight songs of rather hard progressive with crunchy and fierce guitars and with medieval and Irish influences imbedded in the overall sound. Fruupp stood out a little from their UK counterparts, the band hailing from Ireland a fact that is reflected in their sound. With song titles like “Graveyard Epistle”, “Olde Tyme Future” and “Lord of the Incubus” their lyrics (and music) makes you think of times long forgotten.
The six main songs on the album – the intro and epilogue, both entitled “Future Legends”, are short fitting intros and outros – have many strong passages of instrumental delight with that crunchy guitar, good keyboards, bass and drums. With equally strong vocalized parts Fruupp made a smashing debut. Over this they throw in some superb oboe playing that adds an air of medieval atmosphere.
The guitar has more bite and a crunchiness that for some reason were to be avoided on their later releases. A bit of a shame actually, since this was one of the things that made their debut so good. S o anyone thinking of venture into Fruupp land may want to track down “Future Legends” first. This said it’s not like their other albums are bad but I prefer this one for the crunchy guitars but also for the strong material that have no fillers.
 | Seven Secrets (1974)Genres: symphonic rock |
review by thomas
The follow up album to their debut, ”Seven Secrets” contains seven solid songs of epic proportions but as I have hinted before, without that crunchy guitar sound that made their first album really special. On this album they trod along in pretty much the same style as before although a little lighter and more symphonic.
They manage to make another very even album with no fillers, but on the other hand equally without any real gems. So it’s an album with a straight listening line without ups and downs flowing on from start to beginning. Here are more cello and violin than what was on their debut but less oboe playing, which I miss as much as the crunchy guitar.
Many songs are close to non-sayers, especially the first times played; they do however evolve but many songs does that only scarcely. The more you listen to it the more you get the feeling that this is gonna bloom to perfection. Sadly the blooming never reaches its final stage and we are left with songs in the chrysalis stage. The only song that manages to make it is “Elizabeth” with its heavy use of violin and cello and overall chamber music mood. Not a bad record in any way, just not very exciting either.
