Gracious this (1971) Full Album Heavy, Psych, Prog Rock

No sophomore jinx here: on their second album, Gracious truly hits its stride. The first half of the album is a fourpart suite, Super After its Floydian opening instrumental, the band launches into the bleak Blood Red Sun; with a dystopic narrative of environmental holocaust and its martial drumbeat, it s an ideal complement to King Crimson s 21st Century Schizoid Strange, then, that this should lead to Say Goodbye to Love, an effectively weepy guitar ballad of lost romance and tearjerking harmonies. It s on the second half of the album, though, that Gracious hits escape velocity. On the band shifts effortlessly from a groovy clavinet jam to a bouncing barrelhouse piano in the verse. Blue Skies and Alibis is a prime example of Martin Kitcat s Mellotron technique; powered along by Cowderoy s graceful guitar, smoky vocals, and a lush piano progression worthy of Joe Jackson, it s one br, br,