Procol Harum
Novum

Introduction:

The Procol Harum are an institution of English progressive pop, with a career spanning over fifty years punctuated by thirteen studio albums. In Italy, we set them aside too soon... I recommend to fans of pop, progressive, and good music to give them another listen or a deeper dive, especially if you are a bit older (Procol's music is "adult" if there ever was one, and it was already so even when they were young).

Context:

2017: fourteen years after the previous work "Wheels of Fire," and exactly fifty years after "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Robin Trower is not on guitar (hasn't been since 1971) but his substitute Geoff Whiterhorn knows his stuff, warm and fitting. Matthew Fisher is not on the organ either and this is noticeable, his unique touch and style (Bach permitting) held together with leader Gary Brooker's piano and often surpassed it. Neither is the excellent lyricist Keith Reid, marking the first time this has happened; he is replaced by another seasoned expert: Pete Brown, the one from Cream.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Gary Brooker's voice, piano, and composition are more than ever the reason for Procol Harum's existence. A musician who is not virtuosic but consistent, expressive, personal, creative. A lot of water has passed under the bridge, many bottles of cognac. It took the fiftieth anniversary of their career to gather the strength and release these new eleven songs on the market, quietly, just for the faithful fans, half of which are dismissible but the other half more than adequate.

Album Highlights:

The best tracks start immediately with the opening "I Told on You": an elegant piano intro in Supertramp style, which if Rick Davies' voice instead of Gary Brooker's (mind you, the pioneers of these hammered piano songs were Procol Harum, active since 1967 and not the Supers who started in 1970) would make no difference.

"Image of the Beast" is perhaps the best of the lot: a rock blues with a solid and perfect guitar riff.

"Neighbour" captivates with its throwaway (as the English say) choirs, eventually even humorous, reminiscent of some things done by Pete Townshend both solo and with the Who.

"Businessman" and "Can't Say That" are both vigorous rock blues, curiously placed one after another on the tracklist instead of spacing them to make the order of tracks more varied. Nothing groundbreaking but there's vigor, great guitar-organ-drums blend, Brooker's vocals showing he can still scream. The second is better of the two: it contains more ideas and especially a nice sequence of guitar and then organ solos, professionally incisive.

The closing "Somewhen" is just the band leader Brooker, voice and piano. And it's always nice to hear such a combination, it fits well to close the dances. Nothing memorable though, the melody is enjoyed during and forgotten immediately after.

The Rest:

"Last Chance Motel" is quite weak. Amiably predictable. Sung pointlessly well by Gary especially in the vigorous chorus.

"Soldier" is openly irritating in its stale melody, as it reminds in many passages the Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind": it's quite disheartening.

Also, "Don't Get Caught" is not very impressive: expected chorus. It can be listened to only because of the beautiful organ layer and the same can be said for "Sunday Morning"... Brooker gives his all showing he can still hit tenor notes with some power, but there's nothing else.

"The Only One" doesn't speak much to me, a slow and expansive ballad with predictable harmonic evolution from start to finish. Put down with class but without creativity... Phil Collins could sing it, with that unfolded and romantic chorus for desperate housewives.

Final Judgment:

The Procol Harum have done my mind and heart too much good to manage to speak ill of them. In reality, they deserve criticism for only one of their albums: "The Prodigal Stranger" from 1991, truly indigestible.

This one here... good, honest, a six and a half. Who knows if it will be the last, I hope not. Somewhen (sooner or later) they might come back once more, as the last song suggests.