Prologue. And more than twenty-five years later Clear Blue Sky are back with a vengeance on the Space Rock front line. They also are not only back to the form, but they come back in a new, modern form, worthy of their status of the Pioneers of Progressive Space Rock - one of the most important sub-genres of Progressive, created by them during the "Our of the Blue" recording sessions in the distant year of 1968, Anno Domini.
The Album. The second Clear Blue Sky conceptual album "Cosmic Crusader" (the first was "CBSII") brims with innovative, true Progressive Space Rock from start to finish. You may ask why I should define the album's contents so categorically, while there is the only, short yet obvious exception, which almost entirely contradicts with my words. The answer is simple: when I program the album on my CD-player I just exclude the 3-minute sugary ballad Every Living Thing and listen to the 46-minute long "Cosmic Crusader" album, which is really full of all those wonderful things. As for the so roughly destroyed lyrical conception, I have time to read the lyrics of Every Living Thing in the album's booklet before The Serpent's Venom begins. So let's start. Opened with nice spacey instrumental intro Earth, the Rock and closed with the title-track, which is a long (9-minute) epic and a majestic musical flight to the farthest spaces of spacey music, "Cosmic Crusader" is, in my view, the best album among all those that represented the sub-genre in the 1990s, including Hawkwind. All the album's songs-nuclei, beginning with The Age of Dinosaurs, down through The Serpent's Venom, Picture Puzzle, Highway of Fire, People of Darkness, and to conclude with Supernatural, contain all the essential ingredients of real Progressive Space Rock. Variegated fluid guitar solos are either supported by heavy, hypnotic guitar riffs or surrounded by flowing spacey waves. Unusual beats of the heart of the Universe are reflected by the excellent drumming, while pulsating bass lines remind of the signals of pulsars. Meanwhile the soaring vocals of the starship's Commander tell a story of the Earthly people, forgotten somewhere in the spaces of time and in the times of space, who have forgotten themselves and, having lost their way in a wood of just two trees of Good and Evil, can't even imagine that they, Entities of the United Universe, are actually just waiting for another big bang. Beautiful voices of an Unearthly female Entity sometimes responds to Commander's thoughts, confirming them, and the flashes of the dying stars, accentuated by the effects of keyboards and guitar-synth, echo these monologues.
Summary. Not counting the last shadow of the past ballad-syndrome in the face of Every Living Thing, the "Cosmic Crusader" album signifies not only the glorious return of Clear Blue Sky, but also the revival of real Progressive Spacey Rock, now renewed and improved according to the conditions of the contemporary Progressive Rock movement. This album also became a starting point for creating one of the most significant, magnificent works (if not just the best album) of the sub-genre "Mirror of the Stars", with which the Pioneers of Progressive Space Rock become real Kings of the Kingdom, founded by them themselves far back in 1968.
VM. August 18, 2001
John Simms (guitar, vocals)
Maxine Marten (vocals, percussion)
Kraznet Montpelier (bass, vocals)
Ken White (drums)
Adam Lewis (keyboard)
1 Earth, the Rock 4:15
2 The Age of Dinosaurs 6:23
3 Every Living Thing 3:15
4 The Serpent's Venom 4:41
5 Picture Puzzle 7:01
6 Highway of Fire 4:14
7 People of Darkness 5:07
8 Supernatural 4:54
9 Cosmic Crusader 9:41
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The Album. The second Clear Blue Sky conceptual album "Cosmic Crusader" (the first was "CBSII") brims with innovative, true Progressive Space Rock from start to finish. You may ask why I should define the album's contents so categorically, while there is the only, short yet obvious exception, which almost entirely contradicts with my words. The answer is simple: when I program the album on my CD-player I just exclude the 3-minute sugary ballad Every Living Thing and listen to the 46-minute long "Cosmic Crusader" album, which is really full of all those wonderful things. As for the so roughly destroyed lyrical conception, I have time to read the lyrics of Every Living Thing in the album's booklet before The Serpent's Venom begins. So let's start. Opened with nice spacey instrumental intro Earth, the Rock and closed with the title-track, which is a long (9-minute) epic and a majestic musical flight to the farthest spaces of spacey music, "Cosmic Crusader" is, in my view, the best album among all those that represented the sub-genre in the 1990s, including Hawkwind. All the album's songs-nuclei, beginning with The Age of Dinosaurs, down through The Serpent's Venom, Picture Puzzle, Highway of Fire, People of Darkness, and to conclude with Supernatural, contain all the essential ingredients of real Progressive Space Rock. Variegated fluid guitar solos are either supported by heavy, hypnotic guitar riffs or surrounded by flowing spacey waves. Unusual beats of the heart of the Universe are reflected by the excellent drumming, while pulsating bass lines remind of the signals of pulsars. Meanwhile the soaring vocals of the starship's Commander tell a story of the Earthly people, forgotten somewhere in the spaces of time and in the times of space, who have forgotten themselves and, having lost their way in a wood of just two trees of Good and Evil, can't even imagine that they, Entities of the United Universe, are actually just waiting for another big bang. Beautiful voices of an Unearthly female Entity sometimes responds to Commander's thoughts, confirming them, and the flashes of the dying stars, accentuated by the effects of keyboards and guitar-synth, echo these monologues.
Summary. Not counting the last shadow of the past ballad-syndrome in the face of Every Living Thing, the "Cosmic Crusader" album signifies not only the glorious return of Clear Blue Sky, but also the revival of real Progressive Spacey Rock, now renewed and improved according to the conditions of the contemporary Progressive Rock movement. This album also became a starting point for creating one of the most significant, magnificent works (if not just the best album) of the sub-genre "Mirror of the Stars", with which the Pioneers of Progressive Space Rock become real Kings of the Kingdom, founded by them themselves far back in 1968.
VM. August 18, 2001
John Simms (guitar, vocals)
Maxine Marten (vocals, percussion)
Kraznet Montpelier (bass, vocals)
Ken White (drums)
Adam Lewis (keyboard)
1 Earth, the Rock 4:15
2 The Age of Dinosaurs 6:23
3 Every Living Thing 3:15
4 The Serpent's Venom 4:41
5 Picture Puzzle 7:01
6 Highway of Fire 4:14
7 People of Darkness 5:07
8 Supernatural 4:54
9 Cosmic Crusader 9:41
