Well, sort of. Having been decidedly conceptual for their sophomore effort, here D’AccorD have plumped for nine shorter, largely more rock-roughened tunes. Their sense of grandeur has not totally left them. Roving 10-minute opuses open and close the record (only one track clocks in at under five minutes) and melodic, spectacularly ‘classic prog rock’ hooks shape this into a beguiling, retro bolt hole.
Vocal delivery and rockier guitar capture a Wall-era Pink Floyd/The Who vibe in the likes of These Last Todays. Quality rocker Ibliss In Bliss is laced with early Genesis intrigue and Ian Anderson flute-tooting.
The crowning glory, though, is the gorgeous guitar work; capturing, as it does, a beautiful early-70s tone and distorted, blues-rooted style in numbers like Lady Fabulous and lovely olde prog rocker tune Mon-Sat Part I.
If they’d just iron out hose passages that currently feel more like ‘classic prog rock-by-numbers’, this emboldened rock n’ roll side could carry them to edgier heights. For now, though, this offers the 70s prog/rock lover’s musical equivalent of a first-rate hot chocolate; warming, familiar and enough of an indulgent treat without massively rebuilding perceptions.
