Kayak - See See The Sun [Limited Edition, Remastered] (1973)

Kayak's debut is often hailed as the band's best offering, and it might as well be so - but that doesn't mean this album doesn't have its own problems. It can be clearly seen that the Dutch guys didn't have any particular "progressive vision" of their own; none of the songs on here betray any particularly amazing or unique 'personality', none of the band members are virtuosos, and even the vocals are totally uncool - I was at least hoping for a quirky Dutch accent or something, but for the most part, the lead vocals on these tracks are bland and "un-devoted", if I might say so, and considering that there are at least two alternating lead vocalists (drummer Pim Koopman and frontman/Mellotronist Max Werner), plus other members chime in with backing harmonies all the time, this really doesn't sound all that promising. Basically, it's just not the kind of album that could shock you or totally amaze you if you've heard at least a wee bit progressive rock before (or unless you're the kind of prog-minded religiously-inclined kind of guy, you know, the kind that isn't able to perceive 'Dust In The Wind' as an abominable violation of everything that foes under "good taste", 'scuse me a bit while I get off the topic and then get back again).
Another problem is the one rather typical of 'second generation prog bands' - the debut album is just a bit too "packed", if you get my drift. Short songs, long songs, throwaways and epics, and an overall overestimation of their own capacities. Granted, they don't suffer from it as much as Camel, for instance, but still, this makes me look fondly at older bands like Yes or Genesis who were taking risks at grand, overtly serious canvases only after some 'humble' beginnings.
That said, all of these problems may be overcome with time, and essentially, they didn't as much influence the rating as they simply prevented me from assessing the album positively on first listen. In fact, that first listen actually left the impression of "oh, not again" - another Yes/Genesis-wannabe with mediocre melodies and pathetic "epic" ambitions. Nice diversity level and nothing that really offends the taste too much (and a spark of humour occasionally), but nothing that sticks out, either. It was only on subsequent listens that Mother Truth spoke out: hello? Sorry for being rude, but ALL of these songs have well-written melodies. Yeah well, not all of them resonate all that sharply, and they're nowhere near as catchy as 'em Beatles, but many of them are catchier than Genesis, actually. There are quite a few poppy moments on here, too - don't believe those who put a rigid dividing line between early Kayak and late Kayak, such a line doesn't exist. But both the poppy and the proggy moments are really well done. There's absolutely no reason to put this album into your Top 20 Prog Necessities, but no fan of the genre should be without this record, and that's understood.
I'll just give a brief rundown track-by-track here, if you don't mind - I really hate doing this, but what else can you do if the particular album has to be understood and enjoyed on a song-by-song level, not on its whole? That's what happens when you put most of the emphasis on melodicity and hooks rather than on general conception and innovativeness. 'Reason For It All' is a smooth pretty pop-rocker with great harpsichord work from Tom Scherpenzeel and Camel-esque guitar solos, although the mid-section is a bit too drawn out. 'Lyrics' introduces the first really catchy vocal melody backed by beautiful sprinkling piano work (actually, I could probably say Kayak is the most heavily piano-based prog band I've heard), and reminds me of Supertramp a bit - at their best, I mean. At Supertramp's best, I mean. Now you know what I mean, don't you?
'Mouldy Wood' is the album's first rocker, with the harpsichord battling the guitar this time, and although the main vocal melody might seem a bit straightforward and dumb to some, I personally enjoy it - at the least, it ain't generic (but they really could have employed a better vocalist than Werner!). Then comes the record's eight-minute epic, 'Lovely Luna', which I have mixed feelings about... the atmospheric sung parts sound a bit like Acquiring The Taste-era Gentle Giant and are quite lovely, but the instrumental parts go for this heavy symphonic universalist feel, pretending for a 'Firth Of Fifth'-like effect with its minimalistic, deeply depressing fuzz bass riff at the core, and it kinda walks the line between beautiful and cheesy in a very hard-to-judge manner. Perhaps it's just a bit too repetitive to win the 'beautiful' tag... then again, the riff IS really cool, so guess we'll just leave it in its suspended state.
The second side opens with the optimistic rocker 'Hope For A Life', perhaps the most aggressive part of the album - which isn't saying that much, because Kayak are wimps! Ha ha! - due to the abrasive guitar riff, which nevertheless comes in and comes out ceding the space to softer piano-and-chorale-harmony parts and stuff like that, and then gives way to the melancholic Mellotron pounding of 'Ballet Of The Cripple'. The ballad 'Forever Is A Lonely Thought' has perhaps one of the two most gorgeous vocal melodies on the album and is again slightly reminiscent of early medieval-based romantic Gentle Giant stuff, only smoothed and slicked and made a little bit more accessible. Then there's the short rocker 'Mammoth' with a rather complex structure for a three-minute song (managing to alternate rocking guitar bits with Elizabethan-style marches with dreamy Beach Boys-like vocalizing), and finally the climactic title track which, I guess, is these guys' 'Time And A Word' and 'Epitaph' at the same time, but I'll be damned if you won't be tempted to sing along with the chorus - the song really melds together everything, some King Crimson, some Yes, some Caravan, some Beach Boys, and even throws in an accordeon for good measure. And that guy, Max Werner, he gotta sing falsetto more often. If you're high-pitched, high-pitched you go.
So, taken together with the cute two bonus tracks (an early single? they're marked as recorded in 1972 in my liner notes), one of which, 'Give It A Name', has a funny Ray Davies-like vocal delivery, this is really just a handy-dandy listening experience and it's hard to imagine the band coming up with anything better - at least, not if they'd still stay in the same "dependent" mould, which they more or less did.
(starlingdb.org/music/kayak.htm)