Fantasy ~ England

Beyond the Beyond (1974 / 1992)

Beyond the Beyond was the proposed second album from Fantasy that didn't see a release until 18 years later.

See below for my review of Paint a Picture before carrying on.

Beyond the Beyond remains out of time one year later. More mellotron than on the predecessor and the music is a bit more progressive rock influenced. I enjoyed this album more on original impact, though I rate both the same these days. They are more subtle than the usual prog band of the era. If you are a fan of Paint a Picture then you'll also want to hear this.

Ownership: 1992 Audio Archives (CD). Lyric booklet and historical liner notes. 

1995 (first listen); 4/12/13; 12/13/14; 9/24/23 (review)

Paint a Picture (1973)

My experience with Fantasy is very similar to that of Spring, and my review there covers much of those thoughts. In summary, Paint a Picture is one of those albums that was hyped pretty heavily in the rare LP catalogs of the late 80s and early 90s, with screaming headlines about how progressive it was, with mellotrons everywhere. And I mean look at that cover! 1973 England! My mind went wild expecting a crazy full blown progressive rock opus. Oh, this is going to be magnificent. I picked up the first Second Battle LP as soon as it became available (and they weren't cheap even then), and... HUH?

I've long since reconciled with Fantasy. Again it was all about expectation setting. I was looking for something along the lines of Yes' Close to the Edge, and what I got was a typical early 70s UK album as found on the Dawn label for example. A little Jonesy, Fruupp, Quicksand, etc... Except I didn't know much about those bands back then, and it's a different kind of progressive rock than what I understood the term to mean at the time.

In effect Paint a Picture is all about the individual songs themselves. None of them go too far astray from their original premise, excepting perhaps 'Circus', the one track that did resonate with me originally. Each of these songs are well written, with plenty of great guitar and keyboards (little Mellotron honestly), and are great for relistenability (trademark pending). It's the type of album one wishes had been more popular with FM radio, rather than the direction they ultimately headed in. For 1973, it's decidedly quaint and a bit out of touch. As others have mentioned, it really does sound like an album from 1970, with a more late 60s psychedelic era approach to composition, verse the full blown concepts of 1973. A very fine album once you understand what it contains.

Ownership: 1990 Polydor / Second Battle (LP). Gatefold

1990 (first listen); 12//05; 5/27/18 (review)

5/27/18 (new entry)