| Artist: | Kayak |
| Title: | Kayak |
| Label: | Pseudonym CDP 1025 DD |
| Length(s): | 39 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1974/1995 |
| Month of review: | 12/1995 |
| 1) | Alibi | 3.39 |
| 2) | Wintertime | 2.51 |
| 3) | Mountain Too Rough | 3.57 |
| 4) | They Get To Know Me | 9.18 |
| 5) | Serenades | 3.33 |
| 6) | Woe And Alas | 3.01 |
| 7) | Mireille | 2.13 |
| 8) | Trust In The Machine | 6.06 |
| 9) | His Master's Noise | 1.45 |
| 10) | We Are Not Amused (bonus) | 3.01 |
Alibi is quite up-tempo and heavy for Kayak. Wintertime is a very Kayakish track with harmonies, very melodic vocal melodies, lots of keyboard and piano and the harder yet melodic interjections of the guitar. The tracks also contains some accordeon.
They Get to Know me is the longest track of the album and like any track really full of mood changes and melodic intermezzo's and rhythm changes. Still, Kayak doesn't and never has sounded overly complex to me. On this album, less then on their debut, the changes are more purposeful, and you might say that they are starting to learn. This might very well be the best track on the album, especially the build up starting somewhere around the six minute mark. First the build up is on keys and piano, while later the guitar takes over and on a layer of mellotron ascends to great heights. Very intense.
Serenades is not one of my fondest memories of Kayak. The track starts on guitar with a very accessible melody and as a whole, the track is rather bouncy. Lyrically it's a bit like Forever is a Lonely Thought and although it all sounds rather obvious I don't think it is. Still, the song is one of Kayaks more accessible ones and most amenable to single release.
Woa and Alas is a ballad about soldiers not finding their loved ones when they return. Still, in this song it seems that rather than sad the soldier on return shows understanding for her leaving.
Mireille is a rather slurring (is that the right word?) instrumental and moves right into the Science Fiction based Trust in the Machine. This is truly one of the most progressive tracks of Kayak, being rather inaccessible. The guitar is especially strange as are the vocals. There are also some weird experimentations on keyboard. As a whole not very representative for Kayak, but a very good track. Again somewhere past halfway a build up starts comparable to that in They Get to Know Me.
Track 9 His Master's Noise is dedicated to Kayaks roadie and is a soothing ballad.
The bonus track is the closest the band can come to a party stomper (in the chorus that is) and contains a lot of random keyboard interjections. I'm not surprised that this is not a track used for a studio album, but as a A?-side for a single with Serenades on the B-side. Strange to put a non album track on the A-side and an album track on the B-side. Well.