When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.<\/i><\/p>\n Credit: Columbia<\/p>\n In 2018 we stated the case for The Only Ones<\/a>\u2019 second album 1979\u2019s Even Serpents Shine to be regarded as a fully-fledged progressive rock work \u2013 at a time when the genre had been all-but dismissed from popular culture.<\/p>\n There was always an otherworldly feel to The Only Ones. To some extent it emanated from vocalist Peter Perrett<\/a>, a poet who sounded like he was from the same planet as Peter Hammill<\/a>. That quality was also emphasised by John Perry\u2019s jarringly melodic, psychedelically dank guitar work.<\/p>\n The band will always be known for the influential power pop single Another Girl, Another Planet \u2013 and for that reason, their 1978 self-titled debut album gets a lot of attention. But 1979 follow-up Even Serpents Shine<\/a> is a lot more demanding, experimental and compulsive.<\/p>\n Imagine (if you can) XTC<\/a> produced by Joe Meek while steeped in a swirl of Van der Graaf Generator<\/a>\u2019s ideas, and you\u2019re in the right dimension. It\u2019s all so apparent on the downbeat haze of Inbetweens, which sounds like an out-of- body experience in a distended universe.<\/p>\n Perrett\u2019s vocals are chilling, and in many respects he has much in common with Peter Gabriel<\/a> \u2013 both use their voice to disorientate the listener. The same impression comes from Out There In The Night and You\u2019ve Got To Pay; both cleverly play off a smooth tune against a skeletal rhythmic structure.<\/p>\n For this band, it\u2019s always a case of brevity serving its purpose. A track like Curtains For You says more in just over four minutes than others could manage in twice the length. It has the capacity to load numerous ideas and visions in a short musical exercise without ever being cluttered.<\/p>\n Each composition has to be played several times to really appreciate what\u2019s going on. There\u2019s no instantaneous gratification on here \u2013 even something as short as Programme, at just over two minutes, can make the listener\u2019s head spin with Perrett\u2019s expression of multiple personalities through jagged harmonies.<\/p>\n The nearest The Only Ones get to a straightforward pop song is Someone Who Cares, which could have easily been a hit had it been released as a single. But even on here, the listener knows they\u2019re being led into a mental maze of hidden atonal trips.<\/p>\n Even Serpents Shine is a remarkably articulate album, recorded at a time when the whole idea of progressive music was anathema. But now it can be seen for what it is: a boldly dramatic artistic statement, deserving recognition alongside some of the more left field heroes of prog.<\/p>\n After all, the album even ends with the four-minute Instrumental, a mostly, em, instrumental piece that could have sat (un)comfortably on Pink Floyd<\/a>\u2019s The Final Cut<\/a>. You have been primed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Columbia In 2018 we stated the case for The Only Ones\u2019 second album 1979\u2019s Even Serpents Shine to be regarded as a fully-fledged progressive rock work \u2013 at a time when the genre had been all-but dismissed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2161911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[414643,350806,414642,414641,373993],"class_list":["post-2161910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-even-serpents-shine","tag-peter-gabriel","tag-peter-hammill","tag-peter-perrett","tag-self-titled-debut-album"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Why-The-Only-Ones-Even-Serpents-Shine-is-actually-a.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2161912,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161910\/revisions\/2161912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2161911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n