I mostly enjoy Eloy until up to about the mid 70s, before they transgressed entirely from prog/psych into power ballads. Their second album Inside is the one where I felt they really hit a sweet spot. Like scratching a particular itch that rarely gets scratched. They got progressively more progressive as their career started, Inside being a sort of transition period before becoming what I might consider too self-consciously conceptual, or maybe just the fact that their attempts at spoken word they later tried didn't work on me as well.
1. Land of Nobody
2. Inside
3. Future City
4. Up and Down
5. Daybreak
6. On the Road
I always found the first three tracks to be extremely memorable. Frank Bornemann vocals just seem to work best for me in songs like Land of Nobody. Every instrument has memorable personalities and take on their fair share of heavy duty instrumentation while managing to blend together. Furthermore, there`s nothing particularly dated I find their sound. Its not quite hard rock, psychedelic, or prog. In that sense I get a very refreshing and timeless quality from Eloy's earlier stuff, this album being where they got it just right. As a drummer myself I also appreciate Inside's wide range of rhythmic ideas. The use of falsetto in the finale I thought was tasteful, and not gimmicy/used as a crutch; ie its placed in the one climactic spot thats most appropriate for just a couple measures before moving on to other stuff. This album managed to be epic in non-cheesy ways that I'm not sure I could say as much for with their later stuff (I pretty much like their work up to their 1979 Silent Cries and Might Echoes release).
I'm not exaggerating when I say that the title-track is one of my favorite psych/prog releated songs. Certainly if one were to measure based on number of listens. It just has the most perfect momentum and progression that I've so rarely hear anywhere else. The image I get out of the guitar solo is a phoenix soaring up into the heavens and getting swallowed by the sun. It's an intense and aggressive and fast changing progression that is far more condensed than the previous track, which also highlights their diverse methods of songwriting.
And Future City certainly doesn`t rock out like anything else I`ve heard from as early as 1973. The closest comparison I can make to the interplay between the guitar and bass is Slint`s Spiderland. I just adore how different the tracks are all from eachother. After this almost math rock sort of sound we get the moody and emotional song in 3/4, Up and Down. I`ll refrain from more of my cheesy metaphors, and will just say that I always felt really in tune with the emotion in these songs. Up and Down picks up into this arduous, march that leads into a breakdown that, I guess does consist of a spoken word part. I dont generally feel like the Eloy`s non-native English works quite as well within the context of spoken word, this being no exception. Other than that its yet another excellent track.
Daybreak is more fast paced, and almost Can-like in its rhythmic complexity and diverse percussion. It also uses an exotic, unusual sounding musical scale that creates these really interesting melodies. After that the album ends with a nice two minute composition that has a groovy synth. Not my favorite vocals, but a nice guitar solo that rides along with the synth nicely, ending the album on a high note.
Inside is an example of a band hitting the right balance of creative elements. I also think its a good example of what hard rock can be or could have been, managing to bypass any gimmicks that might have later risen from that particular scene. It remains interesting and fresh with different ideas from start to finish, another advantage of the standard 40 minute vinyl in how it might have motivated a more concise and condensed body of work. It will be a great moment when I can find something else that scratches a certain itch in quite the same way as Inside. 9/10
