08. Trillion - Trillion (1978)
Trillion the name sounds like one of those long forgotten 1970s bands, which to be fair is a pretty accurate description for this Illinois based band and were it not for the late great
Fergie Frederiksen that would certainly be the case in point. Trillion were on the one hand very much a product of the 1970s, with proggy leanings typical of a band like
Starcastle and approaching the ambitious pomp-rock overtones of multi-million sellers of the time like
Kansas and
Styx, and had Trillion toiled this line without any real deviations they could easily be labelled as ‘that 1970s product’ but it seemed that the band initially had other ideas……. For the simple reason the Trillion debut must rank as one of the most melodic and even most poppy releases so far featured in this journal and for that reason the album spanks of the direction that AOR would eventually take. This melodic style though was certainly not obvious based on the visual marketing of the album, as the album cover and the bookends of the album in its opening and closing moments cry out heavy arrangements that would’ve done
ELO proud.
In fact the intro to this album and the closing track, are musical arrangements that are big and bold in every respect and the album cover perfectly reflects this musical mood. All this though is possibly why the album ended up as a big commercial flop, because what was the point to presenting yourself as a ostentatious band and then litter the album up with easier listening poppy melodic numbers? Because let’s face it most of the songs end up having relatively normal looking song titles for an album that looks distinctly pomp based on its album cover. I guess the band might have thought that they were working on the art rock side of things here, by working in large amounts of poppy sounding material! Despite this melodic approach, a number of the songs are far from accessible though and the instrumentation throughout the album is tricky sounding on the ear to say the least. With these reservations aside, the Trillion debut despite its flaws might well be the most all-encompassing on this year’s list and rewarding for those that are looking for a surprise.
As for the actual material, the intro to the opening track “Hold Out” with its stomping intro is bold sounding to say the least, but then quickly gives over to the melodic approach of the band, which was the vocal style of Fergie Frederiksen at this moment in his career. This song then segues directly into “Big Boy” which continues with the melodic vein of the album opener and even neatly drops in some 1970s
Marc Bolan backing vocals into the song, possibly a
Gary Lyons the producer's idea here? Favourite tracks on the album include the energetic sounding “May As Well Go” and energetic was always a musical style that was most suited to Fergie Frederiksen, as he would prove to startling effect several years later on
Toto’s Isolation album. The showpiece track and closer on the album is its most proggy concession, at that comes in the shape of “Child Upon the Earth” which certainly sounds like the type of song you’d expect to find on this album.
As the album goes on the tracks become slightly more ambitious such as the funky sounding “Fancy Action” which is a pretty accomplished piece from the band and the following “Hand it to the Wind” sounds like something that any commercial 1970s band could’ve written and “Bright Night Lights” follows the upbeat feel of most of the album well into its latter playing time. The worst tracks on the album are easily the silly “Give Me Your Money Honey” which plays as bad as it sounds and the soppy sounding “Never Had it So Good” which to be fair once it gets past its weaker moments, does have a pretty neat bridge and some hard rock guitar to beef it up a bit, so I might sound a bit unjust here on this track.
The album was produced by Gary Lyons whose crystallized production brings all the aspects of the album together in perfect clarity and the production is probably the best thing about this whole album. Fergie Frederiksen as he often did, didn’t hang around for too long and would eventually make his way to
LeRoux to feature on one of the most AOR sounding albums from its glory years, before the giant step upto Toto and believe me that album is a story for another day…… Overall the album amongst those that do know it is something of a divided one, as there are those that regard it as an oddity that needs to be heard, whereas there are others that simply regard it as a throwaway effort resigned to the bargain bin at record stores back in the day and to be fair I can see why listeners could’ve reached this conclusion. Overall though both myself and Anteater must’ve seen the album’s merits to place it in the top 10 at the cost of other albums that were eliminated to fit it in.