Customer Reviews

The Well's on Fire

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

...and I mean that as a compliment.

Procol have managed to deliver an album of articulate lyrics (via Keith Reid) and dignified music (let's hear it for Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher)...although it suffers a bit from slightly generic production, it's a vast improvement from 1991's "Prodigal Stranger", with its leftover-80's sound. Only a couple of tracks qualify as filler ("Wall Street Blues" the main culprit), but in the main the material is the literate, R&B-meets-Bach that PH have uniquely provided. Their trademark worldweariness is leavened by compassion for the world today; the understated "Blink of an Eye" the best song about 9/11 I've heard. For old-school Procoloids, "Weisselklenzenacht" updates the spirit of "Repent Walpurgis", with organ straight out of "Whiter Shade of Pale" and guitar-driven, "Abbey Road" climax like "Roberts' Box". Perhaps the most moving number is "This World is Rich (for Stephen Maboe)", a stately Brooker/Reid meditation on poverty and misfortune. All in all, not an album for the children that buy pop CD's today, but for those that remember the era of (truly) classic rock...a breath of fresh air, or maybe a musical life-ring.

Mention Procol Harum to most people and if you don't get a blank stare, you hear "Oh, yeah, they did that Whiter Shade of Pale song, right?"
Mention they have a great new album and you may hear "You're kidding, those dinosaurs are still around?"
Part of Procol Harum's problem has always been that they have been identified with a song that is admittedly one of the finest songs ever to come out of the sixties. Most people just don't even know that they did anything afterward! Let's hope their excellent new album Well's On Fire changes all that.
I've listened to it now at least several dozen times and have read all the reviews posted here. Let me make a few observations. First of all, it is unfair to stack the current lineup against the fabled Procol Harum lineups of blessed memory. Those days are gone; some of the players don't want to come back, and one can't. Second, the heart and soul (Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid)of Procol Harum remain and Matthew Fisher is back. We should be thankful for that. Lastly, I'm happy to hear that the music is really all new. If I wanted to hear one of their old songs, I would put on an old album. Weisselklenzenacht does not sound like Repent Walpurgis as some suggest and I am grateful. Repent Walpurgis is one of a kind and should forever remain so.
Now to the music. Despite Matthew Fisher's return, the new PH lineup sounds more that of the days of Exotic Birds and Fruit and Grand Hotel rather than that of the first three albums on which Fisher played before he left the band. Some songs are instantly recognizable as having the classic Procol Harum sound: An Old English Dream, The VIP Room, Fellow Travelers, and The Emperor's New Clothes. I enjoy all those, but am specially pleased with rocking numbers like Shadow Boxed, The Question, and the very topical and timely Wall Street Blues. Every Dog Will Have His Day is also excellent, but we could have been spared the howling.
The Blink Of An Eye, the band's 9/11 remembrance falls short, but is not as trite as some suggest. The phrase about "living on Easy Street" and having the "rug pulled from under our feet" may sound hokey, but to me it merely poetically suggests a rude awakening from self-absorbed complacency.
Well's On Fire represents a sweet return to the limelight for Procol Harum after years in the shadows. I recommend it to one and all.

After waiting many years it is difficult to be objective isn't it? We Procol fans live from famine to feast. Hearing Well's on Fire (and anxiously awaiting the song by that name) and hearing the band on tour on San Francisco (an amazing experience) reminds me of many things - first and foremost that Procol Harum is about music - about where it comes from and where it is. To hear Handel reset by Brooker is an amazing musical moment and the the signature piece at the end is a truly moving musical statement. We can only hope that the next album (and US tour) are months in the future and not years. Procol Harum is about an incredible combination of words and music. May they live forever...

First of all, Procol Harum's first release in 10 years was a surprise to me until last week when I noticed the listing on All Music Guide that did not sound like another greatest hits package. I bought it yesterday and listened to it 3 times in a row. This is truly a wonderful CD, and it has all the elements(except for Robin Trower) that you want from them. Three original members are present, Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher and Keith Reid and they are in tip top form. The rest of the band is perfect too. I am extremely biased towards Trower, but Geoff Whitehorn evokes a Trower-like sound at times, but he is very distinctive in his own right. Most of the songs are Brooker/Reid with a few gems from Matthew Fisher. His last track will give you chills as it recalls "Repent Walpurgis", but this track is even better. My own personal taste in music has moved away from rock over the years to electronica, but upon hearing "The Well's On Fire", I have pulled out all of my old Procol CDs and am relistening to them. I must say their music holds up extremely well and puts them in my top 4 or 5 groups of all time.

I hope Procol Harum gets the support they deserve and start releasing more music, like every year. They are the best!

Procol Harum will always be associated with the mega success of the `A Wither Shade Of Pale' single, and of course given the success of the single at the time and the fact that the song is on almost any `Sixties' compilation, that is hardly a surprise. The problem is however, that the success of that single has provided them with the image of one hit wonders. Of course they had other successful singles like `Homburg', `A Salty Dog', the live version of `Conquistador' and some others that charted, but really Procol Harum has always been an `Album' band, not a hit machine. You can therefore say that their biggest success right at the beginning of their career has damaged that same career and has led to dwindling interest in the further exploits of the band.
If you want to know what Procol Harum is really about, you would do well not to limit yourself to their singles, but to listen to Albums like `Home', `Live with the Edmonton Orchestra' and `Grand Hotel'.
In my opinion their latest offering, "The Well's On Fire" (named after a song that they haven't released yet), fits in perfectly with their earlier work and is a vast improvement on the 1991 `The Prodigal Stranger' album.
`The Well's On Fire' is a beautifully produced album (a joy to listen to with headphones) with both subtle and hard rocking songs. Brooker's voice (one of the determining factors in the unique Procol Harum sound) is in great shape and Fisher's organ playing plus Reid's lyrics greatly contribute to making it sound absolutely Procol.
Most of the other players on the album (and tour) have been with this line-up for over ten years now and this results in the album sounding very much like a tight band and not Brooker and Fisher with some backing musicians.
A song like `A Robe Of Silk' sounds like it could have come of the 2nd or 3rd album, `The World Is Rich' is simply wonderful, the guitar intro on `So Far Behind' is brilliant and the instrumental `Weisselklenzenacht' can easily compete with `Repent Walpurgis' which was a legendary track on one of their first albums. `Weisselklenzenacht' does put you on the wrong foot for a moment as the opening chord is identical to ...... `A Wither Shade Of Pale' (there seems to be no getting away from that one).
All in all a very good and solid album, that really should receive more attention that it would seem to be getting.

Ok, some of Keith Reid's lyrics are clumsy and obvious, and a few of the production touches backfire (I agree with the previous reviewer: lose the electric piano.) But, boy, that piano/organ sound covers a multitude of sins. Brooker's voice sounds great, the songs are mostly very good-to-great, bridging Shine on Brightly majesty with very convincing Exotic Birds-style barrelhouse rockers. As good as I hoped for, considerably better than I expected.

After a long wait, Procol Harum has released a superb studio album that reflects their many styles. There is the Rock and Roll Procol, the Rock meets classical Procol, the Regal Procol, the Bluesy Procol and even the Jazzy Procol and they are all here in this fine collection of songs. The musical writing and the words are tight. Some of the songs harken back to their early days such as Robe of Silk and So far Behind which were actually written in the early days of Procol. Shadow Boxed is an up-tempo song of modern day angst that's hard to get out of your head once you've head it a few times. World is Rich is a deeply moving and beautiful, but sad song ,that reminds me a bit of Holding On from the Prodigal Stranger; and Fellow Travelers and The Emperor's New Clothes meld classical and rock like no other group. The album has a live sound and a wonderful honesty about it. Like the cover, the songs are global in nature touching on 9/11, England, VIP rooms, suffering in South Africa, and even Wall Street scandal. The new line up is in fine form and the group sounds terrific. Procol is like fine wine that becomes better with time, and this bottle is sure to please, with something for everyone. There are even some new twists including the group's vocal harmony. The final song, Signature, explodes with power and is sure to become a Procol anthem. This album has quickly become one of my favorite albums by any group. Let's hope that we don't have to wait quite so long for their next studio album.

Procol Harum, in any of its various permutations, has never made a bad album. This CD ranks up there among their best, although nothing will ever beat their first album or Salty Dog or Grand Hotel.

Gary Brooker and Keith Reid are one of those stellar songwriting teams (need I refer to Lennon and McCartney?) that mesh so well that anything they do is worth hearing. This is a new offering and I'm grateful to be able to hear it.

Yeah, Procol Harum at their worst indulged in some bombastic moments, but none of those are present here. We're fortunate to have Matthew Fisher's organ intertwined with Brooker's piano and vocals. The drums, bass and guitar are by new members who I've not heard of before, but they are equal in quality to the original members.

"The Emperor's New Clothes" is as good a critique of the present political tragedy as we're likely to hear. It's a sorry comment on current formatted radio formats that we'll likely never hear it over the airways. All the more reason to order this CD for your own enjoyment.

Thank God. Procol Harum LIves.

I'm not about to gush over the release of a new Procol Harum album as some seem to be doing--I'll just spit a little. This is NOT quintessential Procol Harum as all fans are fond of remembering them.

Gary Brooker's age-defying voice is still in very fine form as are his pop/rock sensibilities -- though I wish he'd dump that electric piano! It would be too easy to deem the jazzy tendencies of songs such as "The Blink of an Eye" and "The Question" as inappropriate for a PH album; indeed, listening to the majority of the songs one is left with the impression that this is a Brooker solo project -- but that would be nitpicking.

"An Old English Dream" has an unforgettable chorus; "The VIP Room" is a good rocker; and the ponderous ballads "This World Is Rich", Matthew Fisher's "Fellow Travelers", and "The Emporer's New Clothes" are indicative of the group's current incarnation. So be it, everybody's getting older.

The fuzz guitar intro on "So Far Behind" echoes that of the organ on "Shine On Brightly". "Wall Street Blues" and "Every Dog Will Have His Day", two fine blues rockers, sound as if they could have been off Exotic Birds and Fruit or Procol's Ninth.

Unlike PH's last album Prodigal Stranger, Keith Reid's often cliche-filled lyrics here seem to pack relevance, substance, and some of that old KR cynicism. Again, B.J. Wilson's unique drumming is sorely missed as he as much as anyone defined the group's classic sound as fans have cherished it.

"Weisselklenzenacht", the concluding instrumental, is the only tune prominently featuring Fisher's organ--and a fine tune it is with Geoff Whitehorn's soaring guitar gloriously concluding the album a la "Repent Walpurgis" from the group's first LP, but hardly on a par.

Overall, The Well's On Fire attempts to rekindle old sparks and create new ones. The songs and performances are good; the sound and production are clean and transparent. Perhaps it's disingenuous, but I'm not going to lump it in with the classic albums of the seemingly distant past and judge it accordingly; it's not at all a bad effort. We've been waiting for this album for a dozen years and this old Procol Harum fan enjoys listening to it and is grateful for it.

I have seen and have been listening to Procol from the very begining(1967). Have I just started listening to them (Procol) I would say they have a fresh original sound and are truly wonderful composers and musicians ,and would recommend the album to my friends. Since I have been listening to Procol from the begining I rate this album as good as some of there earlier compositions and better than some of the later ones. This new album sounds like Procol ,IN 20003 Great Job Guys See you in NY and Pa.