Well it's quite apparent by reading many reviews, that a lot of folks (mainly progressive rock fans) aren't too keen on the sole studio Babylon album. Not to be a contrarian, but
I like it immensely. The CD liner notes say that Babylon were influenced by Genesis, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Van Der Graaf Generator, Happy the Man and "various European and American progressive bands". Yea, whatever. It's 98% Genesis circa 1970-1973 and 2% the rest and maybe Yes is 50% of the 2%. So they ape the sound of Trespass through Selling England By the Pound. Is that so bad? The songs are entirely original, but the style is ridiculously similar to Gabriel and crew. The US landscape of 1978 is filled with bands that mixed progressive rock with AOR styled pop rock. Not Babylon. This is progressive rock made by geeks to be listened to by progressive rock geeks (I'm guilty as charged). Personally I think 'Dreamfish' is their masterpiece and a song that perfectly fits their sound. It's like Genesis extract: Hyper, intense, dramatic and complex. A great album, and Tampa Bay's one sole contribution to progressive rock... long before they would become the Death Metal capital of the world.
Ownership: LP: 1978 Mehum Music. Single sleeve. Sealed. Greg Walker must've bought 500 of these.
CD: 1999 Syn-Phonic. Jewel case. Historical liners (light) and photos.
My first LP copy was purchased in 1993, probably from Greg as well.
1993 (first listen); 1999; 2004; 3/11/10; 6/10/12 (review / new entry)
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