Shine On Brightly (Remastered)

Originally released in the fall of 1968, Procol Harum's second album was a worthy follow-up to its self-titled debut, even if it didn't contain a hit single on the order of "A Whiter Shade Of Pale"-or on any order, come to think of it, since the lead-off track, "Quite Rightly So," had spent only one week in the British charts the previous spring and not charted at all in the U.S., and no single was released to coincide with the album itself (the title track might have been a good choice). As on the first album, the group's strengths were found in Robin Trower's guitar, Matthew Fisher's organ, full-time lyricist Keith Reid's introspective, imagistic, and often humorous words, and Gary Brooker's imperturbable voice. True to the time, there was a side-long "concept" track, the 17 1/2-minute "In Held 'Twas In I," that encapsulated these virtues rather than indulging in the era's excess and was therefore one of the better examples of the post-Sgt. Pepper art-rock trend, influencing, as Henry Scott-Irvine's liner notes (from the 1998 British CD reissue) suggest, the Who's Tommy. The reissue, Shine On Brightly ... Plus, includes eight bonus tracks, among them some bluesy numbers dropped to leave room for "In Held 'Twas In I," as well as alternate takes and even a version of "Shine On Brightly" sung in Italian.