LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

XI is the 2025 studio album by legendary British jazz-rock pioneers Colosseum, issued by Repertoire Records as catalogue number V391 on 180g vinyl LP.

More than five decades after helping define the meeting point between blues, jazz, rock and progressive music, Colosseum return here with a record that honours their history without feeling trapped by it. The album brings together the current line-up’s seasoned musicianship, warm group chemistry and instinct for dynamic, exploratory playing.

Led by guitarist Clem Clempson, bassist Mark Clarke and vocalist Chris Farlowe, with Nick Steed on keyboards, Kim Nishikawara on saxophone and Malcolm Mortimore on drums, the band moves confidently between blues-rock weight, jazz-inflected grooves and progressive arrangements.

The opening side sets out the album’s character with the driving Not Getting Through, the soulful force of Won’t Be Satisfied, the reflective No More Second Chances and the extended English Garden Suite, a piece that naturally recalls the band’s classic long-form progressive tradition.

Side two continues with the rhythmic colour of Gypsy, a powerful reading of Ain’t Gonna Moan No More, the moody Nowhere To Be Found and the closing track Hunters. The result is a late-career Colosseum album with strong roots, plenty of instrumental personality and the same broad musical vocabulary that made the band such an enduring name in British progressive jazz-rock.

This Repertoire Records vinyl edition, catalogue number V391, is presented as a 180g LP and stands as a fresh studio chapter from one of the great names of the genre.

1. Not Getting Through – 3:19
2. Won’t Be Satisfied – 4:01
3. No More Second Chances – 5:25
4. English Garden Suite – 8:58

1. Gypsy – 4:05
2. Ain’t Gonna Moan No More – 5:15
3. Nowhere To Be Found – 4:39
4. Hunters – 4:49