Retrospective is the first album by Retroheads, a six piece progressive band that started out as a project of Norwegian Tore Bø Bendixen who actually wrote all the music. Listening to the opening track “Earthsong”, gives a nice impression of the music that is well anchored in the seventies. The keyboards and programming by Tore are reminiscent of the work of the Swedish Flower Kings. Other references that come into mind are Genesis and Camel (mainly because of the vocals and the guitars). The track “Man” has a very Ayreon like opening; acoustic rhythms with multiple vocals, showing the melodic side of the band. As the track evolves guitars and keyboards take over, turning the song into Genesis, early Collins period. After a couple of songs the biggest minus of the album becomes clear. The different sections are quite nice, but somehow Retroheads isn’t capable of combining these sections into strong songs and when they do, “Dreams” for example, the result is a little bit boring compared to the other songs.

The thing I least liked about the album is that despite the fact that the music was written by one guy, I keep getting the feeling I’m listening to a compilation cd. It’s not that every prog album should be a concept, but some cohesion between the songs is preferred, especially when you’re interchanging jazz, prog, rock and pop on one album. The music in itself is however very interesting and I’m sure that most musicians among us will appreciate this cd, drummers (listen to the excellent “Judgement Day”) in general. If you’re into solid and well balanced songs with a commercial twist (Inside Out prog so to speak), Retroheads falls short, which might come as a relief to some of you. Despite some personal negative points I must say that Retropolis is a worthy debut and Retroheads is a small promise for the future.