Mile Marker Zero’s Coming of Age is a great modern progressive rock record.
In my English high-school teaching days, I told students that during my teen years in the 1970s, I had a greater chance of winning the big Jackpot Lotto prize than having a date on a Friday night. Given that reality, I told them I went to the local Pipe Dreams record store and bought a record or two. Now this was the time when prog-rock albums ruled the charts, so I explained that some of the songs often clocked in at eight, nine or even 10 minutes – and there was always the hope for a side-long, multi-part “Supper’s Ready” or “Close to the Edge”-styled epic composition. They were aghast!
Now, they were not surprised by my not having a girlfriend. That was a given. But they couldn’t fathom the possibility of an attention span equipped with an eight-minute plus song spin cycle! One guy said, “I’d play a 21 song at a Halloween party just to scare everybody.” Another guy just wanted to hear the Replacements because they sang songs “about being on a city bus.” While there’s nothing wrong with that, in true literature teacher mode, I gave that kid a copy of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha and suggested he give the book a good read.
Thankfully, with the resurrection of the long-playing vinyl record, young music minds are discovering the rarified air of that Friday night-without-a-date vinyl album listening attention span.
And Coming of Age by Mile Marker Zero from New Haven, Connecticut, could well whet that appetite. This is great classic progressive rock music, without the cloned neo-prog motions. This album has powerful subtle beauty and nuances that spin in complex and melodic grooves with most songs hovering just under the eight-minute mark.
The brief “Time and Place” is a piano-voice piece that evokes the Gabriel-Genesis somber lost in “The Chamber of 32 Doors” labyrinth (about to smash a fly into a windshield!) mood. “Best Is Yet to Come” practically quotes Yes’s “Perpetual Change” before the seven-minute plus song erupts into its own electric guitar-driven original sound (thank you, John Tuohy!), as Dave Alley’s vocals craft a powerful melody. Then Mile Marker Zero pulses a dramatic halo, until the song relents into a cosmic-textures venture with a space-rock – but, of course, the main theme returns to land the tune.
Ditto for “Towns to Grow Up In,” which over its (also) seven-minute groove is a bouncy ride with an urgent vocal, nice harmonies, a strident electric guitar, a great bass and drum engine room, and a total prog-euphoria of keyboards. So, thank you, Jaco Lindito, Doug Alley, and Mark Forarile. “Bizarre” relents a bit, with its four-minute vocal and bass-pulsed beat that flows into an acoustic guitar and melodic keyboard middle section, opening into a dramatic finale with more acoustic guitar.
A thumb piano (nice!) introduces “Coming of Age.” I suppose it must be said that Dave Alley’s vocals recall the sound of Phil Collins, circa Wind and Wuthering. There’s nothing wrong with that! But the tune swirls with a tough melody, nicely odd backing sounds, a wonderful acoustic guitar interlude, big vocal drama, and synthesizer sunsetted finale. This is sublime prog music.
There is so much more. “Heavy Days” juxtaposes a hard electric guitar fury against the patience of a classical piano touch and the majesty of a Hammond organ. There’s a nice acoustic guitar / vocal / piano interlude before the tough guitar makes a welcome return, only to finish with more piano/guitar interplay and another dramatic vocal. “Far from Here” echoes the dark touch of early Uriah Heep, but once again, nice nuanced moments contrast with the tune’s big swirling sound, before an almost jazzy final punctuation point ends the song.
The final song, “End of August,” begins with a quiet moment, not unlike the eye-of-the-hurricane Blue Oyster Cult moment. But then the tune accelerates slowly, with piano and pure prog synth, (great) bass work, and wonderfully manipulated vocals, which all feed into a big guitar pulse. Then it all dissolves into a final piano brush stroke.
Those Friday nights (sans a date!) are all great memories. I bought (to name a few!) Focus’ Moving Waves, Klaatu’s Hope, Shadowfax’s first album, UK (with Bill Bruford and Alan Holdsworth!), Nektar’s Remember the Future, Barclay James Harvest’s Octoberon, Camel’s The Snow Goose, PFM’s Chocolate Kings, and Caravan’s Cunning Stunts.
Now, this album’s tire wear is a bit different. Perhaps Coming of Age spins with a more modern tread, but the ensemble playing, the energy, great vocals galore, the patient acoustic nuances, and the classic prog grooves, are all equal in their own Mile Marker Zero manner to the magic of those long-ago vinyl albums that froze time, and made those evenings such a sweet adventurous melodic journey.
- Mile Marker Zero – ‘Coming of Age’ (2024) - October 14, 2024
- Burton Cummings – ‘A Few Good Moments’ (2024) - October 7, 2024
- Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks – ‘True’ (2024) - September 23, 2024
