The debut release from Pennsylvania quartet Glass Prism sets the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe to grandiose psychedelic arrangements -- the concept's more than a bit suspect, of course, but there's no denying the album's ambition or its execution. Both Tom Varano and Augie Christiano are imaginative composers skilled at folding classical and jazz precepts into the hard rock idiom, and their nuanced arrangements (dominated by chiaroscuro shades of funereal organ) artfully convey the melancholy and macabre at the heart of Poe's verse. Equally impressive are Glass Prism's four-part harmonies, employed most effectively on songs like "El Dorado."
01 The raven 02 To 03 To one in paradise 04 Eldorado 05 The conqueror worm 06 A dream within a dream 07 The happiest day 08 the happiest hour 09 Alone 10 Beloved 11 Hymn 12 A dream