Procol Harum – Home

Scandinavia is not a country, this is a norwegian pressing.

HOME might not be quite on the same level as the first three Procol Harum albums...Matthew Fisher is missed, but this is still a strong album, and I love it as much as the ones that preceded it. I get why some folks say the lyrics are too dark, but this band never specialized in love songs. This pressing sounds fine, BJ Wilson's drums in particular have a very crisp, full, deep sound, dynamic range is solid across the board, and the soundstage is wide and spacious. My copy plays nice and clean with a trace of faint surface noise at the beginning of side two.

One of my favorite Procol Harum records. I do enjoy the darker side of PH's lyrics these songs provide. As some have said - there are some dark inflective lyrics here that fit the mood of the style these musicians had. If you've lost and looked at death yourself, you understand.

Sounds fantastic, way better than my Cube double lp with Shine On which sounds thin and has huge distortion in parts. This is much better sounding and very well pressed as per MOV usual!

First off, this monarch press is fantastic!! Second, whaling stories is one whale of a track! Worth the price alone.

One of my favorite Procol Harum albums. The music and writing is what gets me. No one wrote like this band especially on this album and Salty Dog. They mixed Rock, Classical, Blues with R&B influences. The chord progressions are very unique, mixing the classical and rock ideas, while Brooker's voice has those Rock, R&B and Classical influences; then you have Trower; a blues rock guitarist. BJ Wilson's drumming stands out, but is surprisingly uniform to each song. It all fit.

While others knock the lyrics being on the "downer" side, that's true, except the end of Whaling Stories and Your Own Choice, but that doesn't bother me. I don't particularly care for The Dead Man's Dream, but Still They'll Be More, About to Die, Piggy Pig Pig and Whaling Stories are my favorite ones. Of course I like Whisky Train and although it doesn't flow with the rest of the album, who can deny Trower's playing and tone? Listen to Trower's solos on Piggy Pig Pig, Whaling Stories and Still There'll Be More; he has so much feel. Barnyard Story is overlooked in my opinion (of course all of this is...), because the chords and melody flow so seamlessly, while building, then returning back as a whole. Gary Brooker is a very overlooked songwriter and is completely himself.

If Edgar Allen Poe knew how to play electric guitar, he might make an album like this. It's very heavy on poetic verse supplied by Keith Reid (who should be noted is part of one of the few bands who solely retain an artist for lyrics only, without contributing any of the singing or instrumentation). Each member contributes their strengths as musicians, and thus give Procol Harum its signature sound. (Especially singer/songwriter Gary Broker, who is the heart and soul of PH.) For all of its craft, however, there isn't too much on this album that is memorable (except ironically the first track, Whisky Train, which is the only real "rocker" on the album). The rest of the album is largely an operatic lament, very well none, but not necessarily popular music at its best. Fortunately, the album ends with two tracks, 'Whaling Stories' and 'Your Own Choice', which leave the listener with a sense of completion. Even though I don't find this album a particularly iconic PH record, I can't imagine myself ever not wanting to listen to it. So that counts for something!

Oddly, this album is named in this edition as "Whoosh", whereas it is actually "Home". Both words appear on the front cover picture which may have led to the confusion. The track listing on the back is incorrect as "Your Own Choice" and "The Dead Man's Dream" are transposed. The record label itself has the correct information.

There is a mistake on the back of the cover. It has to read: "Still There'll Be More" as it stands on the LP itself and not "De More"

Procol Harum here is presented without a sense of humor, and Keith Reid's poetry is beginning to read like a fourteen year-old imitating Edgar Allan Poe. The lp is overridden with themes of death, and the instrumentation is lush and about as subtle as your average Hammer horror film. I'm speaking particularly here of the big set pieces, "Whaling Stories" and "The Dead Man's Dream".
"Still There'll Be More" was meant to be taken as funny, I suppose, but the lyrics are simply mean-spirited. Jenny Drew from "Nothing That I Didn't Know" is another in a long line of doomed ladies, succumbing to the Grim Reaper all too soon. "Did you see how thin and pale she grew?" I thought she was just anorexic.
The only real fun on this album is the opening track. "Whisky Train" rocks and rolls just fine, and allows us to appreciate the guitar artistry of Robin Trower. Poor Trower. He must have felt suffocated by Gary Brooker's classical style. At any rate, I have been a huge Procol Harum fan, but this album is just a downer. This is truly the point for the band where there isn't so much 'art' but there's an awful lot of pretension.