Saturday, December 16, 2023

The 1981 Listening Post - Astre - Foresight

 Reviewed by Rob Slater

Released: 1981 Astrë Foresight Genre: Prog Wannabe Wank (Call me MAYBE, because I'm not YES, but I want to be. Is the keyboardist Dick Halfasleepman?) Rating: 2 out of 5 (is bad) Highlights: (No) Not a total Dis'Astrë, but I’m definitely going to dis Astrë. The opening instrumental is decent prog rock with some guy playing with his organ. Okay, the second track is more like Kansas, I think. And the not altogether unpleasant vocalist, but nothing to write home about for me. It kind of sounds like a demo for a rock opera. Some hints of Dennis DeYoung. I get really tired of lyricists and musicians who keep repeating the same thing over and over and over again. Some hints of spinal tap here without being funny. Okay, now we get some guitar wanking. Yay. Not. Then some bass guitar wanking somebody wants to be getty leave. Uh, Geddy Lee. Then Neil Peart drum fills. It's like a bad knockoff YYZ. What say we call it YVR, Allen, eh? And it's 6 minutes long. DNF at 4:00. Oh, it's called Lar-Asia. Were they going to claim they thought it up while they were on a train from Bangkok or something? Astrë channeling Dennis DeYoung really bad. (Damn, I was hoping that voice recognition would type Ashtray.) DNF Omg. Another DNF. I skipped ahead 3 minutes and swear I heard the same exact instrumental bit again for about 30 seconds. A 10 minute epic. Jumping right into the middle of a song called World Class. World class what? I'm not sure. At least it's only 4 minutes long. As Count Rugen said to the Impressive Clergyman in the Princess Bride, "Skip to the end." I can tell from YouTube that they're short anyway. Track 9. Part IV (of something). The Waiting. Yes, it was the hardest part. Or should it be The Wanking on the hardest part? Maybe they should have called this album Foresk… Uh, never mind. At least this one sounds like somebody's dying. And it ends with an orchestral track that sounds like the credits should be rolling. Maybe they could have put it into a video with some funny cut scenes. If it started with these last four tracks (I-IV), I might have liked it better, but I'm not going to go back and check. If you like prog rock, your mileage may vary.

No comments: