ANYONE'S DAUGHTER - ANYONE'S DAUGHTER - 1980

For their second album, Anyone's Daughter eschewed the side long suite idea in favour of shorter more accessible prog songs. This isn't really neo - it came too soon for that anyway - and it isn't really symphonic, since the material does not stretch out a whole lot temporally. But it is an ultramelodic disc with excellent songwriting and playing all around. A variety of moods and tempos are struck, and the balance between guitars, keys, and Harald Bareth's warm tones is spot on.

Each of the 8 full length tracks is at least good, although it must be said that at 2 of the tracks are re-worked better on subsequent live recordings, those being the hits "Sundance of the Haute Provence" and "Moria". "Thursday" features sparkling themes on lead guitar courtesy of Uwe Karpa. "Superman" is a dazzling critique on self dependence in which Karpa's leads sound even more like Andy Latimer than usual. The definitive version of "Another Day Like Superman" comes closest to what AD were doing during the Adonis epic, and alternates between ballad and blazing, particularly Matthias Ulmer's synthesizers. "Enlightenment" is a monster ballad, while "Between the Rooms" plies a jazzy furrow for which the group became known over time.

While this album might disappoint some who were hoping for another "Adonis", it provides plenty of tasty licks and is if anything more consistent than the debut. Given the time period, AD was arguably one of the few relatively long lived prog bands keeping the seats warm during the progressive ice age.
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