Album Review: U.K. / U.K.... Such a promising start, but alas, it was not to be....

I could spend a lot of time writing about the changes in musical tastes in the late 1970s that brought progressive rocks first chapter to a close, but I won't bore you with that. The bottom line was disco, and really dance music, had become the driving force, and other genres were beginning to take a back seat. Progressive rock seemed to take a heavier hit than most. It was viewed as a pompous, self important and tedious genre, and in some ways it had become so. U.K.'s first, self titled LP proved that there was some life left in the genre, even if short lived. 

Bill Bruford

U.K. was truly a super group, made up of four musicians who had tremendous prog rock pedigrees. Bill Bruford (drums)and John Wetton (bass and vocals)made up the rhythm section, while also being joined by Eddie Jobson (keyboards and violin) and Alan Holdsworth (guitar). The original band concept was spawned by Bruford and Wetton. For the full story of the ups and downs of the band one can go here and see an interesting read:

The U.K. Story

The album itself, released in March of 1978 was, and still is quite a listen ( and was rated the 30th best prog album by Rolling Stone in 2015)). It had few of the traits that prog rock seemed to be burdened with. No long meandering solos, no ten minute songs; to be more precise the album showed decided a lack of excess, which I suspect was by design. The LP was comprised of eight songs, four tracks per side. Three of the eight tracks comprise the "In the Dead of Night" suite, and a fourth tune "Alaska" is an instrumental. On all of the tracks Wetton is the lead vocalist (and all the lyrics were written by him with the exception of "Mental Medication", which were written by Bruford). Aside from being a very good bassist, he also had a good (and especially for followers of the genre) and distinct voice.

Review

Alan Holdsworth

The album opens with " In the Dead of Night", which is a heavy tune that has a sense of urgency about it. The trio of drums, bass and guitar carry the tune, with keyboard embellishments riding over top of the other three instruments. At the midway point Alan Holdsworth drops one of his best guitar solos ever on what I have to guess to some extent were unsuspecting victims! Holdsworth was probably the least known of the four members of the group, but his guitar playing is, to this day, some of the best on the planet. The next song, and second song in the suite is "By the Light of Day", and there are some interesting things going on here. Wetton sings over Bruford's drumming and an atmospheric wash of keyboards. At times violin themirrors Wetton's vocals, and at other times it goes off on it's own. The song closes with an instrumental passage comprised of thick and heavy sounding chords played on a synthesizer that slowly fade into Bruford laying down the beat for what would become the closing segment of the suite, "Presto Vivace". The beginning of this tune is a jaw dropping bit of virtuosity from Bruford and Jobson, with Wetton adding counter point on bass. I've seen it written that Bill Bruford wrote this tune, but based on publishing acknowledgments, and having heard Eddie Jobson himself mention the writing of the tune at a live show, I do believe Jobson worked out the original composition. Be that as it may, this is one of tightest, fastest bits you will ever want to hear. The instrumental section then fades and the song then reprises the suites opening track, builds to a crescendo and fades on a wash of synthesizer.


A nice video of "In the Dead of Night" using some pretty raw footage:

Eddie Jobson

The final song on side one is titled "Thirty Years" and the lyrics seem to be the lament of a man turning  30. To be honest I had to look up the lyrics as I wrote this just to confirm that I actually knew what they were singing about as I never really paid them any mind! The song starts off slowly, with the vocals front and center, the music just providing a backdrop for them with atmospheric keyboards and nylon string guitar. The song then picks up the tempo as we are given a series of solo spots by Jobson and Holdsworth.  Jobson starts with a violin solo, and chases that with a synthesizer solo.  Holdsworth then lays down a nice guitar solo. None of these soloing  ever seems like overkill to me. They are fairly short, and didn't take away from the song itself. The solos then move into the vocal finale, as the song fades away on a sea of keyboard and guitar fills.

Side two opens with the albums only true instrumental "Alaska". It starts out with rather ominous chords on the synthesizer, and it does convey a feeling of icebergs and cold. The song then shifts gears as we are hit with chords on a Hammond C3 organ that are helped along by the rest of the band. Jobson then creates a melody line on the violin that moves over a very heavy underlying foundation of sound. This then shifts very rapidly into the only passage on this album that I suppose echoes the excesses of prog rock to some. It is a little bit that is a little slice of musical insanity. I've listened to it enough that it makes "musical sense" to me, but I'm guessing some could find it annoying. That said, it is just a short snippet, which moves immediately into what I would say is probably the most popular tune on the album (which means it got some FM 

John Wetton

airplay!), "Time to Kill". Too me, it feels like a precursor to the band Asia (which included John Wetton) or the 80s version of Yes. The song isn't overly long, it is a bit more melodic than some of the other songs on this album. It also has a great violin solo, with the tonality of Jean Luc Ponty, but not the phrasing. An enjoyable tune! "Time to Kill" is followed by "Nevermore", which opens with some not obtrusive guitar and keyboard noodling under Wetton's vocal intro. The vocals on this song are very interesting, with layered harmony vocals and a odd meter. The first verse is followed by a very tasty round of solo exchanges between guitar keyboards, and violin followed by a unison bit that moves into another vocal section. Following this we get what I call the "dream sequence" segment of the tune, which is comprised of a solo synthesizer section which is then overlayed with vocals which are  accompanied by Bruford's drum flourishes. The album is closed out with the Bruford penned tune "Mental Medication". The song opens with a jazzy acoustic guitar intro, which leads to chorus and verse after which commences a long section of fairly adventurous sol0ing from Holdsworth and Jobson. The song ends in a finale of multi-tracked guitar parts that Brian May would be proud of!

Parting Thoughts

This was to be the only U.K. album done by this quartet of musicians. As their first tour progressed Holdsworth was asked  "stick to the script" by Wetton in regards to his playing . Not surprisingly, if you know much about Holdsworth and his playing, he refused, and at tours end he was asked to leave. This was too much for Bruford, who had brought Holdsworth into the band in the first place, and he too left. Wetton and Jobson brought in Terry Bozzio on drums for their last studio album "Danger Money" and a live album recorded in Japan before the band's demise. Wetton went on to form Asia with Carl Palmer and Steve Howe, and Jobson went on to play with Jethro Tull and record solo material.

What we are left with is a fabulous album from four musicians at the top of their game. Bruford and Holdsworth had just finished playing together on Bruford's "Feels Good to Me" solo LP, Jobson had just finished up a stint with Frank Zappa and Wetton with Roxy Music. U.K.'s sound echoes other bands of the era such as Brand X, Bruford, Tony Williams Lifetime, Jean Luc Ponty and Return to Forever. To my ears the album that sounds the closest to what U.K was doing would be, unsurprisingly, Bruford's 1979 release "One of a Kind" with Holdsworth on guitar. For those about to rock, we salute U.K.!

"The Theory was that America needs a new ELP. Half of U.K. (felt that way) and me and Holdsworth felt America needed more Holdsworth!"

Bill Bruford

If you like this album then you might enjoy:

Bruford: One of a Kind

Jean Luc Ponty: Cosmic Messenger

Tony Williams Lifetime: Collection