From the opening moments of Fanfare For The Broken Hearted, you can almost hear what the critics will say. They’ll tell you the music sounds like early Pendragon or Pallas, that it’s proudly rooted in the past, or that the vocals have the twang of Drama-era Yes.
The naysayers would be right too, and although this Scottish band’s inspirations are defiantly backward-glancing, there’s nothing wrong with that when the music’s this evocative.
Whereas there are a myriad of acts that badly recreate and rehash prog from a bygone era, Comedy Of Errors distinguish themselves by ensuring purposeful melodies are constant features of the songs. Take for example The Answer, with frequent switches of pace, or the blazing pomp of Going For A Song. Both songs are intricate but without countless, superfluous notes.
There are though the occasional lightweight, awkward moments: Time’s Motet And Galliard is a failed attempt at matching Rick Wakeman’s classical intensity and the sluggish Remembrance is guilty of trying a touch too hard.
For all that, Fanfare & Fantasy is still a solid album of lush, retrospective prog which will no doubt earn the band admirers.
