Product Code: WET30287929
Original price was: $39.00.$23.40Current price is: $23.40.Released in 1973, From Books and Dreams is the second album by Message, a German-based British band blending progressive rock, hard rock, and elements of jazz fusion. Its a darker, heavier, and more focused record than their debut, featuring lengthy compositions filled with shifting moods and literary, dream-inspired themes. The band delivers a sound somewhere between the sharp riffing of early Uriah Heep and the exploratory depth of Van der Graaf Generatorbrooding, intellectual, and musically adventurous.
Led by guitarist Allan Murdoch and vocalist/saxophonist Tommy McGuigan, Message build long, dramatic tracks that combine muscular guitar lines with atmospheric keyboards and expressive wind instrumentation. The albums complex arrangements and often dystopian lyrics reflect a deep engagement with existential and philosophical themes, making From Books and Dreams one of the more intriguingand underratedalbums in the heavier side of continental prog.
Reviews
From Books and Dreams is a powerful and cerebral record, full of drama, intensity, and depth. Message manage to be both emotionally raw and technically sharp, offering a compelling blend of prog rocks complexity with hard rocks force. AllMusic
Heavy and hypnotic, this is a thinking persons hard rock album. It tackles big themesalienation, mortality, dreamsand wraps them in intricate riffs and brooding sax lines that give it a dark, magnetic pull. Prog Archives
Message operate in the shadows of the major prog acts, but here they deliver a brooding, literate album that holds up alongside better-known peers. Each track feels like a descent into a vivid, unsettling dreamscape. Mojo
A gripping listen from start to finish. The balance of aggression and atmosphere is remarkable, with long instrumental sections that burn with slow-building intensity. The Quietus
From Books and Dreams is a haunting, heady album that deserves more recognition. Its got the riffs, the ambition, and the intellectjust buried under decades of obscurity. Record Collector
A1 Sleep!
A2 Dreams And Nightmares (Dreams)
A3 Turn Over
B1 Sigh
B2 Dreams And Nightmares (Nightmares) - Introducing The Myth (Including) The Unpleasant Spell
