Barclay James Harvest-XII (1978)

Barclay James Harvest's ninth album was the last to feature their main keyboardist and one of the band's founders, Wolly Wolstenholme, who left due to musical differences with the rest of the lineup. It was also the last album on which they used the Mellotron, replacing it thereafter with more cutting-edge synthesizers. While "XII" is a more harmonious and balanced album than its predecessor, "Gone To Earth", it lacks tracks as popular and catchy as "Hymn", "Love Is Like A Violin", "Poor Man's Moody Blues", and "Sea Of Tranquility", which appeared on the previous release. The most emotional moment is undoubtedly the song "Berlin", a clear ode to the German city divided at that time by the Berlin Wall, a tremendous success in Germany and the rest of Europe. On the other hand, the solid rock of "Fantasy: Loving Is Easy" becomes the only counterpoint to an album full of beautiful soft rock melodies such as "Classics: A Tale of Two Sixties", "Turning In Circles" or "Sip Of Wine", while the progressive vein appears in the majestic "Science Fiction: Nova Lepidoptera" and "In Search Of England", to end with the pleasant "Fiction: The Streets Of San Francisco", inspired by the famous American police series of the 70s. As in all the previous records, this would once again flood the charts in Germany and central and northern Europe, places where the band gathered a very large legion of fans.