By the time of their third album changes were afoot for The Tangent. Roine Stolt and Zoltán Csörsz were gone, replaced by Krister Jonsson (with an assist by Dan Watts) on guitar and Jaime Salazar on drums. Andy Tillison becomes even more ambitious in his scope for the band, and A Place in the Queue clocks in at over two hours. But far from suffering from some of the slow bloat of their last album, here things become more varied, more expansive, and overall more successful. There are a lot of folks who call this the band’s best album, and while I might not quite agree there, we can certainly align that this is a huge, stellar record, fixing the mistakes of the previous and aiming for heights that will come to define the band on future releases.

In the liner notes to the album Tillison clearly calls out Yes and Tales From Topographical Oceans as a touchstone for this mammoth record. And while there are sections that are heavily Yes indebted, the album sits in its own unique space quite nicely. In kicking the album off with the monster 20-minute “In Earnest” the band not only justifies their place in the program rock queue, but also crafted their best song to date. Theo Travis continues to shine on sax, but what I wasn’t expecting was how great Krister Jonsson fits in on guitar. Coupled with Guy Manning’s acoustic playing he sounds phenomenal, a different player from Stolt but a player capable of really hitting the pocket of the song. The song also seriously rocks, probably one of the reason I love it so much. After some lackluster energy on The World That We Drive Through it’s great to get blown back by some truly rocking music.

Side B starts with “Lost in London” whose narrative is about what you’d expect: Tillison relaying a story about being lost in London sometimes in the 80s and ruminating on the future, but it’s also a pointed expression of the lack of listening and caring during the time of the war in the Falklands. That agitation and frustration is echoed in the music, where the shuffling drums and flute sections hide more frenetic, bursting moments of rock. The solos begin likewise muted, reflecting those feelings of timidity when no one is listening to you, at least until the rage rises and you storm – something the solos do in equal measure. It’s a great dark and brooding track that segues immediately into the short and weirdly cool “DIY Surgery” written by Theo Travis, providing ample opportunity for him to show off. Definite shades of Zappa to my ears, and Reingold has a chance to shine as well. It’s abrupt, ending sharply and moving into another Tangent classic, “G.P.S. Culture.” The Yes flag is waving high here, and it’s another high-octane burner of a track, Tillison really leaning into his inner Wakeman. It moves from rock to jazz to everything in between, simply a killer track and another classic from the band.

“Follow Your Leaders” continues both the trend of more rocking numbers and pointed commentary about conformity and the sheep herding of the general populace. There’s a swinging lounge vibe to the song, if that lounge was in Hell. I was not prepared coming into these reviews to be this ecstatic about Theo Travis, but he really is a wonder on this album. Jonsson continues to really impress with his guitar playing, and this is where I finally call out Jaime Salazar’s drum work – it has a much lighter touch than Csörsz’s maniacal playing, but it really works in the context of A Place in the Queue. I won’t lie: the disco/funk of “The Sun in My Eyes” doesn’t do all that much for me, but I can’t help but marvel at how tight the playing is, and how well they ingest the style and make it their own.

That leaves at long last the whopper of the bunch. Coming in at over 25 minutes, “A Place in the Queue” is another screed against bureaucracy and the modern world but man, those instrumental breaks are just fantastic. In between the second and third parts Tillison has written into the lyric sheet (Spectacular Saxophone Solo) and the bold font I’m using doesn’t begin to describe just how great it is. Bombastic, stealthy, romantic and disillusioned all at once, it’s a song deserving of the title “epic” which can also be applied to the whole of A Place in the Queue.

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Going to take a quick break from all this great Tillison stuff for two reasons: 1) So much more new stuff has come in I want to at least give it a listen, so why not write about it at the same time, and 2) honestly I just ordered the special edition CD of Not As Good As The Book, the fourth album by The Tangent, so rather than move up to the next album I currently own (it’s 2015’s A Spark in the Aether) we’ll sneak in a couple quick reviews and then return to wrap up my Tangent collection.

See you in a few.