For hardcore moodies, the set of albums known as the “core seven”, the original seven albums released by the band from 1967 to 1972 Is where the interest in this band lies. Days Of Future Passed set the ball rolling but five years later they sort of ran out of juice artistically, with Seventh Sojourn considered an excusable last product in this set.
The other six albums vary a good deal in quality. Hippie political trends came and went, while there still seem to be some red threads through the core albums. The pseudo philosophical lyrics and concerns about human existence and such has always been a central part of their image resulting in decent concept albums as we now know them.
The hippie stuff is toned way down here though and the expression is not quite as pretentious and neither as experimental as earlier. But there is an evenness to the overall feel of the album and melodies are very solid, particularly on side one. They go a bit into repetition on side two, but it is nothing criminal.
Songs like “Isn’t Life Strange” and the dystopic “Lost In A Lost World” are brilliant and among the best the band ever made. Pompous and overblown in their usual vein, without sounding contrived or recycling old ideas (too much). It is probably the most accessible album of the core, and I would say, the perfect introduction to this, somewhat overlooked, pioneer of progressive rock.