Soft Machine's "Third" is widely regarded as a progressive rock classic and a blueprint for the jazz-influenced Canterbury sound. Although I have an extensive Soft Machine collection, I have always felt somewhat at odds with this supposed masterpiece. With four long compositions originally spread across four LP sides, I tend to lose the thread. In particular, I find the first two tracks, “Facelift” and “Slightly All the Time”, aimless and haphazard. 'Moon in June' is certainly the highlight of the album. Robert Wyatt sings improvised lyrics about summer and his longing for rain and retreat. Even though all the tracks on the album were very roughly edited, the vocal passages lend the song more structure and create a summery, melancholic mood. 'Out-Bloody-Rageous' is reminiscent of the music of Terry Riley, the highly influential founder of minimal music at the time, and feels more self-contained and thoroughly composed than the first two instrumental tracks. "Third" marked a radical departure for Soft Machine, moving away from the psychedelic proto-prog of the first two albums towards jazz. It would be in the years and reincarnations that followed that the band would more fully return to its rock heritage. I prefer almost all of the band's other albums, even though I find this radical shift in sound revolutionary.