Track Listing

1. Walls of Babylon
2. Shadow
3. Total Recall
4. Voyager
5. Black Knight
6. And We'll Go Hunting Deer
7. Am I Really Losing You?
8. King of the Castle [Acoustic Version][#]
9. Paintbox [Acoustic Version][#]
10. Last Waltz [Multimedia Track]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183604 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Dimensions: .18 pounds

Album Description
This 'Polish' album of Pendragon is, first of all, the best characteristics of the band's production. It's the revision of more than fifteen years recorded output of this most popular progressive rock group. 7 track album with three bonus tracks on this limited editions digipak, 'King Of The Castle(Acoutic)', 'Paintbox (Acoutic)' and an enhanced video of 'The Last Waltz'. 2000 release.

Customer Reviews

Prodigious Neo-Prog Rock
In the beginning there was Genesis! Then along came the wonderful Marillion. They were followed by the inscrutable Pendragon!

British Neo-Progressive Rock band Pendragon formed in London in the summer of 1986. Band members were songwriter Nick Barrett (vocals, guitar), Peter Gee (Bass), Fudge Smith (drummer) and Clive Nolan (Keyboards). All members except the latter have pretty much worked within the confines of Pendragon while Clive Nolan has been all over the place, forming another very good Neo-Prog band, Arena, guesting on three Ayreon projects, Performing in yet another Neo-Prog band, Shadowland, and guesting on at least another half dozen albums. Additionally he has produced a few albums and was the engineer on a few.

History is, obvious from the title, a best of album, sorta. While there is definitely some good stuff on here, I do not consider the music within this compendium to be representative of their best but then again, I'm not being fair since Pendragon is a band in ascent. Their star has yet to hit their apex and some of their best music was released subsequent to this compilation.

"Walls of Babylon" Man, they start off with a simply fabulous tune. "Wish You Were Here" anyone? The four minute extraordinary guitar and organ intro is pure Pink Floyd whereupon the organ takes over and Pendragon smoothly and effortlessly eases into the sound of Genesis. Strangely enough singer/guitarist Nick Barrett manages to sound like a combination of Genesis's Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and even Marillion's Fish. This ten plus minute gem is indeed worthy of a best of compilation.

After "Walls of Babylon" the songs all become very melodious and mellow and yes, unfortunately boring. Individually they are very good but as a whole and being seventy minutes long, as a unit they become boring. The most interesting of the remaining songs is "The Shadow" which starts out slow but gradually builds up both speed and intensity to absorb my interest. I should mention that all these songs seem to have an ethereal quality and a mildly psychedelic undercurrent with Clive Nolan's fabulous organ/synth work. Another strength of their music is the always pleasant melodies.

Three other very good and similar songs are "And We'll Go Hunting Deer", "Am I Really Losing You?" and "The King of the Castle". They are all blessed with intriguing melodies delivered in a slow to slow medium pace with Barrett's very pleasant and emotional vocals ably assisted by acoustic or electric guitar, organ or synth and the equally able rhythm section. In Hunting Deer, a contributing hook is a placid wood flute and a choir beginning, in Losing You it's a remarkable ending whining guitar solo and on King of the Castle we have Barrett vocally mimicking an instrument at the end.

Conclusion

To be fair, this album is probably a tad too mellow for my taste but it is very good and I would tend to play it as DO NOT DISTURB background music while I'm doing something immensely important, like writing Amazon reviews or playing chess with Boris Spasky or hosting one of my many Championship Bridge tournaments, plus it's definitely more impressive for my mother in law than say, Megadeth or Cradle of Filth. I guess I can think of all kinds of places where this heavenly non invasive music can be used.

A great introduction to a GREAT band!
This newly released Pendragon comlilation album from Poland is the best compilation of this bands fine music that you are likely to find! The C.D. includes extensive liner notes, including a brief history of the band. The packinging is top-notch (much better than Pangea Music's earlier Pendragon compilation for the US market), and the song selection here is quite nice! For those that have never heard this excellent band, this disc will make a fine introduction (although I still recommend the albums "The Masqurade Overture" and "The Window of Life" as the best way to really learn what this band is really all about musically!). For those who are already die-hard fans, the band have included some newly re-recorded acoustic versions of "Paintbox" and "The King of the Castle". A video clip of the song "The Last Waltz", from a 1996 show in Krakow Poland, is also included for PC users. All in all, if you are a fan of progressive rock, DON'T miss this excellent, creative band!

Prog Jewel
The first thing to note about this supposedly Polish only release is that the extensive linear notes detailing the bands exploits in Poland have been somewhat badly translated and along with the rather small print make for a difficult read. The package though is well presented and beautifully laid out. Luckily the music speaks for itself and is exceedingly good even if several obvious comparisons come to mind.

The 76 minutes are represented by 9 tracks and the opener is enough to tell you this is one talented band with one foot firmly in the past and one in the present. 'The Walls Of Babylon' borrows heavily from Gabriel era Genesis but only the picky person would have a problem with that. Nick Barrett's vocals have a quality that both Gabriel and Fish exhibited whilst lyrically the band in general fall short of either artists high standard. Clive Nolan's wash of keyboards do tend to over-ride the album as a whole, which is not a criticism as he up there with the best of the genre.

Track 2 is 'The Shadow' from probably their best album 'Masquerade Overture' is a lush affair and worth the price of admission alone. Masquerade is represented twice more but in a different a thoroughly enjoyable light as the band re-arranged 'The King Of The Castle' and 'Paintbox' for an acoustic setting.

The Black Knight from 'The Jewel' is arguably the best track on this compilation and is followed by perhaps its' weakest moment 'And We'll Go Hunting Deer'.

The band are rounded out with Fudge Smith on drums and Peter Gee on bass and their respective talents are obvious and compliment Barrett and Nolan. There is a chemistry between the band that works on several levels.

A solid introduction for the collector but serious fans would do better availing themselves of the original albums as songs culled for a collection by bands of this elk are seldom cohesive outside their original setting.