Act One/Waters of Change

This 2014 two-fer from BGO combines the first two albums by Beggars Opera, a Glasgow prog band comparable to the Nice. Released in 1970, Act One is dense, classically influenced, and aggressively carnivalesque, anchored in ambitious set pieces ("Raymonds Road" and "Light Cavalry" clock in at nearly 12 minutes, then there are two other cuts hovering around the seven-minute mark) but the indulgence is charming and often compelling. Waters of Change, released the following year, isn't quite so rococo as it sways between long pieces and brief palate cleansers, often evoking the pastoral aspects of late-'60s British psychedelic even if it unquestionably resides in the heady world of the early '70s, where every idea was attempted, no matter if it was good or bad. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine