Garden Shed

England were obviously influenced by Yes and Genesis but there was more to them than that. I bought the record back in the late 1970s and still have it.Listening to this clear sounding CD has reminded me of how the band had their own ideas and style over and above the obvious comparisons with Yes and Genesis. They could be quite subtle. My favourite is still the track Poisoned Youth but the additional instrumental is an unexpected bonus.Three Piece Suite also has a good mix of Yes inspired vocals plus originality.This album is not going to be to everyone's musical taste but I think the band were unfairly pushed to the side-lines and beyond by punk. It is 38 years old but I still like it. It is not over-produced.

Sounding somewhere between Gabriel-era Genesis (instrumentally) and Yes (vocally), you will probably like this album if, like me, you are nostalgic for the heyday of Progressive Rock. I have to admit I had never heard of England the band. I stumbled across a review of this album online and couldn't resist the temptation of its 'Lost classic of Progressive Rock' tagline. On the whole I tend to agree with that. Not as melodious as Genesis, maybe, and takes a few plays to get into, but well worth the effort.

One of the most significant albums I ever heard, thanks to introduction of Mr.John Young (Lifesigns). It's a double decker : first cd is original 1977 release, second cd consit of beautiful bono materials (incl. version of Carmina Burana). Its a treat formy heart and soul.

A great slab of later 70s prog. Recommended by a friend. First cd is superb, bonus cd ok.

Hugely underrated album from English 70s progsters. 'Poisoned Youth' is a stand-out but all the tracks hold the interest.

best prog album of the 70's every home should have one. ........... and I saw them live on Hastings Pier!

There are not that many true "Lost Classics" in Prog rock, but this is one. England were unfortunate in arriving just as the PunkRock movement (now seen as little more than astute management by the "Business") hit its stride and making a poor choice of promoter/label.The music is the equal of Genesis or Yes, being acessible but deep, well played and thoroughly rewarding to listen to. They wouldn't score highly for presentation and that's probably the crux. Anyone who hears "Poisoned Youth", "Yellow" or the quirky "Paraffinalea" will see how the music flows - it is fascinating and brilliantly dynamic, the recent remastering has undoubtedly helped, but I'm very proud to be the owner of the original vinyl.If you are a fan of English Progressive Rock from the '70's or any other period since, you won't regret buying this one. The accompanying artwork is intriguing also.

Excellent is a little dated. Sought it for the Mellotron sounds and was not disappointed. Glad I did.

Longtemps introuvable à moins de 100 euros, cet album passait pour un joyau méconnu du rock progressif. Selon les puristes, le groupe England aurait eu sa carrière injustement abrégée pour cause de Punk naissant.En cherchant un peu, j'ai réussi à me procurer ( pas en France ) à un prix acceptable cet album à la pochette rétro-kitch en carton, réplique du vinyle d'origine.A mon avis, si ce groupe n'a pas marché, le Punk n'y est hélas pour pas grand-chose. Bien que sympathique (ce qui n'est pas un compliment), cette musique souffre au départ des défauts hélas souvent symptômatiques du " rock progressif série B ", à savoir:Chant d'un niveau faible à moyen, style Sparks-Ten cc héliumisé dans Midnight Madness, Jon Anderson du pauvre ( très pauvre!) dans Paraffinalea (quel titre!).Compositions alambiquées, certains soli de guitare à la limite faux (genre Hackett pas maitrisé), imitation de la Ricken 4001 avec une Fender, ça le fait pas,etc... Bref l'album école pour petit détracteur du progressif!Bon ce n'est pas inécoutable non plus, quelques passages sympa de mellotron et de douze cordes, mais on sent que les influences ne sont pas du tout digérées. Cela se situe plus dans la lignée de certains groupes de prog-rock français des 70's dont je tairai les noms pour ne pas me faire incendier, avec quand même un talent mélodique supérieur aux français.Cet album comblera les fans de progressif tendance intégriste (canal historique?), autant que les anti-prog ( c'est du velours!), mais n'est certainement pas le diamant brut oublié, serti dans un écrin symphonique de mellotrons soyeux (c'est beau la poésie).Si ça se trouve, ils y sont encore dans la cabane au fond du jardin ?

Bei Liebhabern der Prog-Musik gilt dieses Album seit langem als Geheimtipp. Nun, so geheim ist die Band ja nicht, und gut war sie immer. Auch nach all den Jahren wirkt die Musik frisch. Warum der Erfolg dann ausblieb. Die Jungs waren zur falschen Zeit im richtigen Studio.

Avec cet opus sorti en 1977, ENGLAND réuni le meilleur de Yes, Genesis, avec des touches de Gentle Giant , rien que ça. Ce groupe délivre un Rock Progressif symphonique et mélodique, raffiné, précieux, finesse des arrangements, nombreux breaks, développements instrumentaux élaborés, tout amateur de Progressif normalement constitué se doit de posséder ce disque.

PROG WIE ES BESSER KAUM GEHT

７７年という、すでにプログレが混迷期に入り、多くの大物バンドが解散や路線変更を余儀なくされていた、この時期にメロトロンなどを使用した叙情派プログレ的サウンドは英国プログレの底力を感じさせる内容の作品です。初期のキング・クリムゾンやジェネシスが好きな方なら絶対に気に入るはず！

まあ、どんどんと幻の名盤という評判が加速されていくので、どんなもんか聞いてみる。ただ僕自身がイエス、キンクリ路線で、ジェネシスは苦手です。ですからマリリオンなんかも苦手、昔で言えばグリフォン系の宗教っぽいゴシック系プログレも苦手です。こんな指向の僕が聞いた感想ですから・・・。正直「まあまあ」というところでしょうか。音よりジャケットのポップさ、色の鮮やかさ、そして当時１枚出して消えたという神話的面白さ・・・そしてなによりバンド名がいいです・・・等々が相乗効果で、特に日本では受ける要素いっぱいです。こうやって考えると、第２のイエス、キング・クリムゾン、ジェネシス・・・そんなもんは無いものねだりなんですね。ただ、３曲目の「Three Piece Suite」はいい曲だと思います。結構、こればかりリピートのセッテイングで聞いていた時期がありますから。

First off I like the music here it sounds very clean and may resemble some others' music to a degree but these guys stand on their own well. The founder of Band of Rain, Chris Gill turned me onto this. Never heard of it before. Chris has put out 6 CDs under the Band of Rain banner. I am very happy to own all of them. These people like Chris are well seasoned musicians and are putting out fine new music that I would recommend to anyone. One reason I was told of this by Chris is that the new album by Band of Rain that is coming out, is called Petrichor. Chris did the six CDs almost by himself but did enlist the help of some fine musicians and on Petrichor, Robert Webb the fine keyboardist of England will be playing on it as well as Jon Camp bassist from Renaissance. . So.....that is the best I have to prop this CD up is to say they are great musicians as well as anyone doing any kind of this music at least. There is lots of new music out there folks and these are some very well seasoned musicians and performers and they are all putting out some great CDs. So.......England.....Garden Shed.......is some good listening and they have their own sound. Highly recommend.

Although I like this recording because its Progressive base, I have to be very honest:First, I think that it wasn't easy for a symphonic Progressive band, like ENGLAND, to had been released in the middle of a difficult musical period (like the Punk era), without consecuences... not without being called a type of Dinosaur... though the music was good... and second, you have to be a very experimental and creative keyboard player to get a real own style only to play the mellotron in a simple way without listen like a GENESIS copy... unfortunately tracks like "Yellow" or "Poisoned Youth" confirm this...Almost all the musical songs of this band are embellished with choruses that reminds me the 70's PILOT Rock band, but by the other side you have this track "Three Piece Suite" that contains a lovely melodic classical guitar intro a la Steve Hackett. And the commercial track in this recording is "Parafinalea".On the compositional aspect, this band is not very talented and their complexity is not at the level of another english Progressive Rock bands. although their songs are long and well crafted, they are very predictable musically and there's no surprise in listen to it... But I must say that the real track that identificates the emotion and the sound of the band is the instrumental "Nanagram" because it sounds like ENGLAND and not like GENESIS. Funny! if we consider that this magnificent instrumental was not released with the oficial album (???...). So these are some of the circumstances that round about this 70's recording. The highlights are: "Midnight Madness" and "Nanagram"... Good Luck!

I am very excited to get this CD - I've been hunting after it for years, and the wait has been worth it - it's a real gem. These guys play a very smooth and complex symphonic progressive rock. Very lush textures and intricate instrumental interplay, great vocals conrtibute to a rich, unique sound that makes this album a joy to listen to. The vocalist sounds familiar - he is sort of a much better version of Anthony Phillips, and has the ability to make himself sound like whomever he wants, for example like Peter Gabriel, on "Midnight Madness"."Poisoned Youth" is an monstrous piece of 16 minutes, superbly crafted and carefully composed, and one of the best progressive rock songs I've ever heard. "Yellow" is a beautifully haunting song, with chiming 12-string guitars, which could have been on "Wind And Withering" or "Geese And The Ghost". "Three Piece Suite", another epic, is a bit disappointing, and is the only weak spot on this otherwise solid album, since it shows a lot of promise in the first half, sounding like a lost Yes song, but later the momentum gets lost as the band changes directions a couple of times. "Paraffinalea" is a happy and bouncy tune, very quirky in a typical English prog way. The little piano interlude "All Alone" is also a very beautiful and melancholy piece. "Midnight Madness" is a classic example of what great progressive rock is all about. I love the lyrics too, they are very original and humorous.While not very innovative, England combines the classic progressive rock elements in their own way. Each song is unique which makes it easy to form a mental image of the entire album. One gets the impression that the album is very well thought out and balanced. Happy and melancholy, beautiful and monstrous, quiet and loud, dark and light - all these changing dynamics and moods make it an exciting listening experience.This release benefits from great equipment and production, coming out in 1977, which made it possible to create a smooth and rich sound comparable to Camel and Genesis recordings of the same period.It's a shame that England remains nearly unknown and forgotten, thanks to a vindictive and greedy music business that decided to vilify and destroy progressive rock. This album definitely sits well alongside "Wind And Wuthering", "The Snow Goose", "The Geese And The Ghost" or "Close To The Edge".

Until a month ago, I'd never even heard of this album from 1977. And after a few listens, I'm just dumbfounded that music of this quality and originality has to go unnoticed by the masses because of timing (the infiltration of punk and disco) or mis-marketing. The only other plausible explanation I can come up with is that the first song - before it fades into a Genesis-like prog gem - starts off with some light and unstructured musical sounds on the keyboards, imitating some atypical instruments (like Chinese strings, trombone, tuba, etc.). If the casual listener got bored 75 seconds into this album, he/she might have missed 47 more minutes of prog bliss!This is a GREAT album of progressive music in the vein of mid-70's Genesis and Yes. Nice use of mellotron, piano and other keys throughout, interesting drumming a la Bruford, and a melodic bass that doesn't get lost in the mix. Great vocals and harmonies, occasionally sung falsetto, growled or whispered for dramatic effect. The lyrics are more in the Genesis vein of story-telling, sometimes humorous in a tongue-in-cheek manner. A couple of the vocalists remind me of Triumvirat's Helmut Kollen and Genesis' Tony Banks (that's right, Tony Banks!) from his solo albums. But I also hear passing similarities to Supertramp's Roger Hodgson and Yes' bass player Chris Squire, which I'm sure adds to the Yes-like harmony vocals heard occasionally.This particular issue of the CD comes in a thin miniature album sleeve replica of the original album (perhaps a quarter inch higher than a normal CD jewel case). An insert includes all of the lyrics and other info in both English and Japanese or Korean or something. (Personally, it was difficult for me to follow along with the lyrics in Japanese!;-) This issue also includes a 4-minute bonus track called Nanagram (that's the way it's spelled on the insert), which is all instrumental, and a nice way to round out the CD with over 52 minutes of music. (Nanagram/Nanogram comes from another rare, short album of their recorded material called "The Last of the Jubblies".)Despite the references to the prog masters, this group has a very unique sound of its own, and they take an original path with their lyrics and varied lead vocals. As an example, "Three Piece Suite" (with it's Yessy "A Venture" vibe in the first section) features three different lead vocalists in its three different sections. Overall, a very good and complete album, and even slightly better than two other one-off prog essentials that I love from the same era - Cherry Five and Cathedral's "Stained Glass Stories". (Dare I also mention Neuschwanstein and Yezda Urfa?) Obscure but excellent!Believe me, I've got more music than I have time to fully listen to, and you probably do too. But this is the type of CD for which we yearn and endlessly search; and when you find it, you just have to add it to your CD library.Find it. Buy it. Listen... and thank me later.I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:Music quality = 9.1/10; Performance = 9/10; Production = 8.5/10; CD length = 8/10.Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 8.9 ("4-1/2 stars")

Released in 1977 on the Arista Label, this well-recorded one shot by English prog rockers England is simply superb. Loaded with virtuosic playing by all members, great vocals, organ and analog synthesizers (including tons of mellotron), excellent melodies, and metric/harmonic complexity, this recording is sure to please a lot of prog fans. The six pieces on the CD range in length from the 1'51 acoustic piano piece "All Alone", to the 16'18 near-epic symphonic extravaganza "Poisoned Youth". Although the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Prog Rock description of this recording cited Supertramp influences in addition to those characteristic of Genesis and Gentle Giant (vocal harmonies only), apart from the occasional heavy guitar riff, the arena rock influences are pretty much invisible. If anything, Genesis influences circa 1976-1977 dominate. This CD re-issue was released on the Korean label Si-Wan records with liner notes in Korean. For those of you that cannot get enough of this fantastic band, a compilation of studio outtakes and other odd bits and pieces was released sometime during the 1990's as "The Last of the Jubblies".

England was an overlooked band whose elegant 1977 debut LP just a tad late, its skillful and melodic symphonic prog sound coming out contemporaneously with the first wave of Brit punk bands. In this age of the neo-prog revival, England's "Garden Shed" is getting a second look and rightly so. This is a beautifully-packaged 2-CD set with decent liner notes, lovely artwork and a lyric sheet. The second disc contains outtakes and a live recording from back in the day and several worthy tracks from the band's later re-unions.

Garden Shed by England is classic 70s symphonic prog. All of the elements that you love about bands like Yes and Genesis are here. Melodies, harmonies, time changes that make for good composition and plenty of synth. Let's put it this way...if you are wishing for just one more band to take your head back 40 years - these guys will do it. Heavy rotation since purchased. Highly recommended.

Awesome prog.

Excellent CD. Highly recommended