| Track: | Rating: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Half A Mind To Leave Ya | | | |
| 2. Whatcha Gonna Do | | | |
| 3. We Did It | | | |
| 4. Nobody's Fool | | ||
| 5. Song For Alaya | | | |
| 6. So Here We Are | | | |
| 7. She | | | |
| 8. The Stars Are Out Tonight | | | |
| 9. When The Sun Shines At Midnight | | | |
1978 was generally not a good year for progressive music. Emerson Lake & Palmer provided us with Love Beach, generally regarded as the low point of their career (prior to the 1990s, at least). Yes came forth with Tormato, their worst album to date. Genesis gave us And Then There Were Three, Gentle Giant gave us Giant For Day, etc. etc. Most of the major progressive bands were, at this point, heading in a more mainstream direction, and the quality of the music suffered as a result.
Real To Reel, the fourth album by Starcastle, might well be regarded as the nadir of this degeneration.
Starcastle were never known as one of the better progressive bands. Most of the more acceptable moments on their first albums were often regarded(correctly) as blatant rip-offs of Yes; even on these works, an uncomfortable foreshadowing of AOR seemed to hover in the background.
All the same, both Starcastle and Fountains Of Light had a few excellent moments... which is more than one can say for Real To Reel.
If Tormato and And Then There Were Three incorporated a certain degree of kowtowing to the American mainstream, Real To Reel was a complete capitulation. A few superficial indicators of their previous sound remained, but the tracks which resulted were almost invariably of low quality. Given that this was their final album, one might regard Starcastle as the victims of record company manipulation, image-mongering, and other such problems. One might pity them as a result. But pity cannot equal respect, of which this album merits very little.
The songs themselves...
"Half A Mind To Leave Ya" sets the tone for the entire album, beginning with an interesting synth part which abruptly transforms into a Boston-esque full-band section. It must be admitted that some parts of this song are rather catchy, but this probably has more to do with the fact that it's a blatant rip-off of "Yours Is No Disgrace" than anything else (you can actually sing along with the Yes lyrics, at times). The guitar solo halfway through the song is a sub-par Howe imitation, and the ending goes on too long. This is a mediocre track at best... and it's still one of the better songs on the album.
"Whatcha Gonna Go" is dull, banal, and insipid. A few decent flourishes + a half-decent guitar solo prevent it from being an absolute disaster, but there simply isn't much to consider here...
"We Did It" starts is a promising manner, with a heavy emphasis on synthesized parts. It gets boring quickly, though, and the synth part eventually mutates into a blatant "Roundabout" rip-off. The godawful lyrics and vocals certainly don't help matters either.
"Nobody's Fool" is the nadir of the album, a godawful track in the style of <insert the name of any major AOR/MOR star who doesn't give a damn about the quality of his works>. The music is repulsively bad (think of an even more dumbed-down Doobie Brothers riff and you'll get the idea), and the lyrics are much the same.
By this point, the album has already revealed itself as a disaster of major proportions. "Song For Alaya", though, is at least a partial attempt at getting the album back on more favourable ground. Some parts of the song sound like any generic power ballad; other parts sound more 'McCartney-esque' (one might note a vague similarity to "The Long And Winding Road") in their construction. It's far from great, but at least much more tolerable than what comes before it.
"So Here We Are" begins with a Cars-ish (???) section, and quickly descends to a less interesting generic AOR section (with a few Rod Stewart similarities that can't easily be forgiven). Dumb power chords mark out their territory throughout the work -- the instrumental section is of the Journey/Styx variety (except the bass, which actually isn't that bad).
"She" is not terribly different from the previous tracks, starting out with the vague promise of something good, and quickly mutating into something far worse. "The Stars Are Out Tonight", by contrast, stakes its claim much more clearly by beginning with lousy, rudimentary music (and it doesn't get better, of course).
"When The Sun Shines At Midnight" virtually screams "token inclusion to keep our older fans happy". This song at least tries to go beyond the limits which ruin the rest of the album... and it half-succeeds, creating a good-but-not-great ending to the work. The music is at least somewhat adventurous (decent piano and bass lines mark the opening section), and even the quasi-power ballad chorus isn't that bad. In comparison to the rest of the album, this is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. But it isn't enough.
Real To Reel is, for the most part, a disaster. The individual songs are generally plodding wrecks, sinking slowly in the morass of American Top 40 pop. The collective concept is much the same. Non-completists might want ask someone else to dub "When The Sun Shines At Midnight" (+ maybe "Song For Alaya" and "Half A Mind To Leave Ya"). Completists might want to write unfavourable reviews to prevent innocent bystanders from buying the album.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 5 May 1997)