 | Banished Bridge (1973)Genres: progressive pop, progressive rock |
review by thomas
This is to my knowledge Novalis’ only album done in English. Four songs meet us on the album, the title track takes up all of side A. That track is surprisingly acoustic and low-keyed in nature; they only play acoustic guitars, and the song itself also works surprisingly well for most of the time. But it’s the keyboards that dominate the sound and there are some moments of dark and frightening music as well as some close-to-circus sounds. The singer at times has a distinct German accent, other times he sounds more “English” and his singing style reminds of many other Germans, like that guy singing in Grobschnitt or the singer in Ikarus.
The other side is more heavy in the use of the organ and often sounds like those swirling organ bands; the acoustic guitars are less frequent and the bass has some really fine moments. The quality on this side is a little more fragile, especially “High Evolution” gives you bad vibes, but no song is actually bad, that is to say that all songs are quite listenable. The ending of “Inside of Me (Inside of You)” is by the way rather astonishing and the whole album comes out as a stabile one, but it’s one of those albums you maybe listen to 4-6 times a year and although you at those times quite like what you hear it doesn’t increase your listening ratio, it just feels enough with what you give it.
A refreshing and rather unusual title track and some fine swirling organ on side B but anyway not overly exciting. And finally: what about that stunning cover! Now isn't that something remarkable!
