This Is – GRACIOUS!***

Super Nova/CBS/What's Come To Be/Blue Skies & Alibis/Hold Me Down

Follow up album from the British progressive group Gracious!. It was released as one of a budget series by Philips, after they had disbanded and without any publicity. The high point is Super Nova which fills the first side.

“The jewel of the album is the first side-long epic Super Nova, which starts out with some really cool spaced-out sound effects dishing out the best progressive electronics of the day, and then begins to really rock out with a Floydian guitar riff that reminds me of the Syd Barrett years.”

“The album includes high quality progressive rock tracks one after another. The massive Super Nova fills the whole first side and it's a pretty awesome 25 minutes long epic piece with four different parts. The second side continues the same strong way.”

“Instrumentally it's quite pleasant, they've gone for a spacey sound, which works quite well for the most part. The guitarist is the star, delivering some outstanding solos, the mellotron waves are pretty nice as well. The arrangements are very one-dimensional though, all the edginess the last album had is gone. Now they're playing in a much more commercial key and the rhythm doesn't seem to change much.”

“Super Nova starts out promisingly in an experimental heavy space-rock way, but it gets lighter to the end. The rest of the tracks are predictable, dated rock/prog with a commercial edge. Not enough darkness or heaviness for my taste.”

“Significantly better than their debut, this one features a variety of prog rock types - some light, some hard, and some heavy psych. Unfortunately for the band, the album's release on this primarily budget sub-series of Philips doomed this to almost total obscurity at the time.”

“A bit better than their debut album, above all the remarkable suite Super Nova that moves from classic progressive rock to a romantic pop in the vein of early King Crimson. It stands alone as the best episode of an interesting album, although it is no masterpiece.”

“Gracious blend hard-driving rhythms with gentle melodies to produce an album that should be in every progressive rock lover's collection. While the lyrics are forgettable, the instrumentation is outstanding.”