Kayak - See See the Sun (1973)

Tracklist:
1. Reason For It All
2. Lyrics
3. Mouldy Wood
4. Lovely Luna
5. Hope For A Life
6. Ballet of the Cripple
7. Forever Is A Lonely Thought
8. Mammoth
9. See See the Sun
10. Still Try To Write A Book [*]
11. Give It A Name [*]


Playfully Progressive – 7,8/10

Kayak’s first album was arguably the weirdest they would ever do. Despite having the greatest front cover of all, it’s also the only album featuring such playful use of odd time signatures and theme changes. Experts were soon comparing Kayak to the world’s finest progbands like Yes or Genesis, and the Dutch were proudly dubbing them the Dutch progrockers. Overall, this album is very weird. When I first heard it there were question marks popping out of my head like you see in those cartoons. How on earth could an album be so radio unfriendly, and at the same time include two of the band’s greatest hits to date?

This album reads ‘progressive’ in each and every aspect. Where we tend to have a catchy poppy theme on “Reason for It All”, we have these odd vocals by Max Werner and Ton Scherpenzeel to surprise us. Hitsingle “Lyrics” features very impressive pianos and a really odd time signature in the verses, not commonly found in singles. Probably the oddest song on the album is “Mouldy Wood”, it flies from odd theme to odd theme, with a cut time signature here and there and weird vocal lines, and a sudden epic guitar melody, and then we have it all together, before the finish with the epic guitar melody. It’s one of the most fascinating songs I ever heard and presents a very playful Kayak, trying a bit too hard to be progressive, but succeeding nonetheless. This pleasant line of surprises and oddities is continued throughout “Hope for a Life”, “Ballet of the Cripple” and b-side and CD bonustrack “Still Try To Write a Book”. Second hitsingle and live classic to this day “Mammoth” features some experimenting with a barrel organ, resulting in a very unique sound, but the song might be a little too poppy in sound.

There are some more mellow sides on this album as well. “Lovely Luna” is an eight-minute piece that I have yet to understand fully. We have Pim Koopman singing here, instead of the usual Max Werner, and the song begins with very silent verses that take an eternity to finish, and then we have a lengthy slightly uninteresting guitar riff, before we get to the verses again. I think this song should’ve been cut down a lot and perhaps even left off the album, I don’t like it. “Forever Is a Lonely Thought” also features Koopman on vocals, but this one is a lot more enjoyable. It also begins silent, but has more active and more fascinating arrangements, overall more relying on pianos than anything else, as on the whole album. Official album closer and title track “See See the Sun” is an epic piece of music, driven by pianos and keyboards. This song is a great example of the great vocal arrangements Kayak has, due to having more capable singers in the band than just one. Even though this is not unique, see Styx or Queen, Kayak makes unique use of it, subtly simulating echoes. The CD album is closed by former b-side “Give It a Name”, which is, though very discouraging at first, a very relaxing and funny song and a brilliant piece of music. It features Koopman on vocals again and features spoken verses, accompanied by a cheery Hammond organ melody.

All in all, See See the Sun is Kayak in its earliest form. It sounds very playful and very progressive in every aspect, something which will not be found on later albums. This makes the album unique and with it Kayak represents the Netherlands on the progressive rock scene. If you a fan of Kayak and you don’t know this album, you should check it out, for you will be pleasantly surprised with each song.

Strongest tracks: “Mouldy Wood”, “Hope For a Life”, “See See the Sun” and “Still Try to Write a Book”.
Weakest track: “Lovely Luna”.