Thursday, January 11, 2024

Triumph: Progressions Of Power (1980)


 Triumph’s fourth album saw them trade off the pretensions of Just A Game for a more streamlined, hard-rock approach (except for the sleeve - that’s prog af). Gil Moore leads the charge on this one, penning and singing the majority of songs on this album while Rik Emmett delivers some very unconventional material (“Take My Heart” was the closest to “soft rock” this band ever got) and, of course, his customary solo guitar piece (“Fingertalkin”).  After dominating Just A Game it’s only fair for Rik to cede the controls to Gil this time, even if that meant dumbing it down a bit. 

As usual, Rik Emmett’s songs are complex and interesting while Gil Moore sings about shit like partying, rebellion, chicks, and being in a band. I know it sounds like I’m being a dick about it but the thing is, that pairing worked. Gil kept Triumph from getting too pretentious while Rik kept them from being too lowbrow.  

While this is by far not my favorite Triumph album, that’s not to say it’s a bad record. This jam totally rocks. Very hard at some points. It’s just not necessarily their most memorable.

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