TONY BANKS - Seven

I was really interested to hear a new side of Tony Banks but I found myself a little too unaffected. It is nice, it has these Tony Banks chord progressions we all love, it would make for really nice background music, still it failed to wow me. I respect it but it hasn't conquered my heart.

Never really listened to Tony's classical albums, not my cup of tea, really. I gave 5 a bit more spins, but can't recall Seven. Still hoping for a new rock album ...

Taken out of curiosity, it's missing a story that links the Pieces.

A lack that TB solved with Six and Five.

I have it and I like it more than any of his non-classical solo work (except maybe his first album) but his later classical releases are better. I agree with the review, that Seven sounds a bit like a film score at times. It was an excellent first effort at a vastly different discipline though and I think Tony is more suited to classical music, or music arranged with classical principles in mind (e.g. many of his best Genesis 'prog' era tunes) than he is to poppier material. The latter invariably sounds clumsy and/or dated to me, whereas his classic and prog work, or the best bits of them anyway, are timeless.

Spring Tide and Black Down would be my choices, although here again I agree with the review in that Spring Tide sounds Vaughan Williams influenced - which would not be my first choice in the classical arena.

However, Seven was a brave and pretty decent effort at classical music and a solid platform for his subsequent work to build upon.