Music Banter - View Single Post - The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal

Trollheart · 06-24-2011, 06:32 PM

FIRST SPIN

Right, I've been going on for weeks now about how I'm going to introduce this section where I choose a random album and review it, be it good, bad or indifferent. So here it finally is. Over the next god-knows-how-long I'll be occasionally spinning a random number generator and linking that back to my album database, picking out the album it refers to and, no matter whether I love it, hate it, feel neutral about it or even haven't heard it yet, I'll do my level best to do a balanced review of it. I should mention right off the bat that, should I come across as cutting, mean, or even unknowledgeable about certain albums/bands/artistes I review here, I accept I may not know enough about them, but I'll be reviewing purely on what I hear, how it makes me feel, and what I personally get, or don't get, from the album. Comments, criticisms, debate and death threats are as always welcome. Well, maybe not death threats. Set me straight, it you feel strongly that I've disparaged one of your favourite albums or artistes, but understand that no slight is in any way intended.

This feature will run as and when I have time, so there could be days/weeks/months between reviews, unlike my normal reviews, which I will try to keep more regular. Also, I will be introducing new sections to my journal, which may end up pushing back “Spinning the Wheel” even further.

Remember, it's all a matter of chance, all a roll of the dice. No-one knows what will come up, least of all me.

Every good boy deserves favour ---- The Moody Blues --- 1971 (Threshold)

Okay, so here we are at the first “spin of the wheel”, and like my usual luck, it's let me down. Oh well, so the story goes: you pays your money and you takes your chances. A random album I said, and a random album it is. And I guess in some ways it worked out, as this is by no means an album I would have chosen to have featured, given the choice. But I laid down the rules, and must live by them. Hey, this could end up being interesting: can I manage to review an album I don't care too much about as professionally as I do when reviewing my favourite albums? Let's see...

So, the Moody Blues. Well, they've always been something of an enigma to me. I know they're well known and respected. I know they have their place in the history of music, and millions of fans, lots of hit singles, and to be fair, I do like their “Very best of” album, which is why I made the point of acquiring the rest of their catalogue. To date, that seems to have been a mistake. I should have stayed with the greatest hits package, and been none the wiser. About eighty percent of what I've listened to so far has been, to me, boring, slow, and leaves me cold.

That said, let's get on with the album. Released in 1971, it's the sixth Moody Blues album, and was very well received at the time, hitting the number one spot. The title of course refers to the mnemonic taught to anyone trying to learn music, to help them remember the progression of notes on the treble-clef: E-G-B-D-F. The sleeve is very striking, with an old man offering a child the world on a string: very deep.

The opening track doesn't help to change my opinion of the Moodies. It's a very weird instrumental, with only a few words --- desolation, creation, communication --- more or less shouted rather than sung during the track, and it's apparently supposed to represent the birth of music, from the dawn of creation up until now. It doesn't work for me: I find “The Procession” annoying and a little off-putting, but it's followed by one of their songs I do know, from the VBO: “The story in your eyes”, which is a fast-rockin', upbeat number with a rather dour message: ”But I'm frightened for your children/ That the life we've been living is in vain/ And the sunshine we've been waiting for/ Will turn to rain.” There's no doubting the talent of the Moody Blues: Justin Hayward is a phenomenal singer, and a great songwriter. And guitarist. Mike Pinder lends the compositions a weird otherworldy feel with his flurries on the mellotron, his tinkling on the harpsichord and other keyboards, and Graeme Edge keeps everything ticking over behind the drumstool. It just doesn't always work for me.

“Our guessing game” arrives and departs without leaving any real impression on me. It has a sort of medieval feel to it, sort of acoustic, but to me sounds a little confused, not sure what sort of song it wants to be, and the vocal harmonies are all over the place. Hayward does not sound on song here: his voice seems to warble and tremble. “Emily's song”, written by bassist John Lodge for his newborn daughter, is Beatles-ish, pleasant if a little sugary, with an interesting little lyric: ”And in the morning of my life/ And the evening of my day/ I will try to understand/ What you say.” I hear echoes of Fleetwood Mac in it, though of course the Moodies were first, so I should really say I hear echoes of this in in particular “Book of love” from “Mirage”.

“After you came” starts off like “Question” from “A question of balance”. It's a reasonably fast-paced rocker, and at least here Hayward gets to stretch his considerable vocal abilities. There's more guitar too. As I listen to it, the melody continues to follow that of “Question”, from the previous album: perhaps they had that song on their mind when they wrote this? The next one up is another pastoral-sounding song, with a suitably “hippy-like” title. “One more time to live” is another great showcase for Justin Hayward's vocals, and indeed the soaring organ (oo-eer!) of Mike Pinder. There's repetition of the “desolation/creation/etc” refrain from the opener here, some nice acoustic guitar helping to take along a song which is pretty upbeat and hopeful in its subject matter. Nice lyric too: ”One more tree will fall; how strong the growing vine/Turn the earth to sand and still permit no crime/ How one thought will live provide the others die/ For I have riches more than these “

“Nice to be here” comes in on a flute and drum base, again very pastoral, very Haight-Asbury, Hayward's vocal much more restrained on this track, one of only two on the album exclusively written by Ray Thomas, the flautist (not surprising then that the flute plays such a central role in the song!), and this then takes us into the second Justin Hayward-penned track, “You can never go home”. It's telling that the only other track on the album written just by him was the big hit off this album, the aforementioned “Story in your eyes”, and here again he displays his singular talent for writing great songs. It's a much different song to “The story in your eyes”, but still stands out from the rest. His vocal is very understated on it, but he makes up for it with his guitar playing! Nice backing vocals too, properly arranged and orchestrated this time.

The album closes on the only track written by Mike Pinder, and indeed the longest on the disc, at nearly six and a half minutes. It's not surprisingly introduced on a piano melody and carried on keyboard and organ, and it's in fact a very good song, and a decent closer. “My song” is a mission statement: ”Love can change the world/ Love can change your life/ Do what makes you happy/ Do what you know is right / And love with all your might/ Before it's too late”. Not exactly original lines, no, but words to live by, in any time. After about two minutes in, the song virtually stops, and there's silence for a few long seconds before a VERY good and dramatic instrumental passage --- very cinematic. It's a pity the rest of the album isn't like this, as it's just at the end that I finally get into the album, through this track. But by now it's too late. It's a great way to close what is, in my opinion, a rather mediocre album, and to be honest I can't see how it went to number one in the UK when released, but then I guess the Moodies were much more popular back then. If I had just heard this and “The story in your eyes”, I would have thought this album is much better than it is, but to be honest, the bad/mediocre tracks on it outweigh the good, and in the end I don't see myself listening to this again any time soon.

Except maybe to sneak a listen to “My song” one or two more times...

TRACKLISTING

1. The procession
2. The story in your eyes
3. Our guessing game
4. Emily's song
5. After you came
6. One more time to live
7. Nice to be here
8. You can never go home
9. My song

06-24-2011, 06:32 PM	#40 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Introducing ... (drum roll) "Spinning the Wheel"! FIRST SPIN Right, I've been going on for weeks now about how I'm going to introduce this section where I choose a random album and review it, be it good, bad or indifferent. So here it finally is. Over the next god-knows-how-long I'll be occasionally spinning a random number generator and linking that back to my album database, picking out the album it refers to and, no matter whether I love it, hate it, feel neutral about it or even haven't heard it yet, I'll do my level best to do a balanced review of it. I should mention right off the bat that, should I come across as cutting, mean, or even unknowledgeable about certain albums/bands/artistes I review here, I accept I may not know enough about them, but I'll be reviewing purely on what I hear, how it makes me feel, and what I personally get, or don't get, from the album. Comments, criticisms, debate and death threats are as always welcome. Well, maybe not death threats. Set me straight, it you feel strongly that I've disparaged one of your favourite albums or artistes, but understand that no slight is in any way intended. This feature will run as and when I have time, so there could be days/weeks/months between reviews, unlike my normal reviews, which I will try to keep more regular. Also, I will be introducing new sections to my journal, which may end up pushing back “Spinning the Wheel” even further. Remember, it's all a matter of chance, all a roll of the dice. No-one knows what will come up, least of all me. Every good boy deserves favour ---- The Moody Blues --- 1971 (Threshold) Okay, so here we are at the first “spin of the wheel”, and like my usual luck, it's let me down. Oh well, so the story goes: you pays your money and you takes your chances. A random album I said, and a random album it is. And I guess in some ways it worked out, as this is by no means an album I would have chosen to have featured, given the choice. But I laid down the rules, and must live by them. Hey, this could end up being interesting: can I manage to review an album I don't care too much about as professionally as I do when reviewing my favourite albums? Let's see... So, the Moody Blues. Well, they've always been something of an enigma to me. I know they're well known and respected. I know they have their place in the history of music, and millions of fans, lots of hit singles, and to be fair, I do like their “Very best of” album, which is why I made the point of acquiring the rest of their catalogue. To date, that seems to have been a mistake. I should have stayed with the greatest hits package, and been none the wiser. About eighty percent of what I've listened to so far has been, to me, boring, slow, and leaves me cold. That said, let's get on with the album. Released in 1971, it's the sixth Moody Blues album, and was very well received at the time, hitting the number one spot. The title of course refers to the mnemonic taught to anyone trying to learn music, to help them remember the progression of notes on the treble-clef: E-G-B-D-F. The sleeve is very striking, with an old man offering a child the world on a string: very deep. The opening track doesn't help to change my opinion of the Moodies. It's a very weird instrumental, with only a few words --- desolation, creation, communication --- more or less shouted rather than sung during the track, and it's apparently supposed to represent the birth of music, from the dawn of creation up until now. It doesn't work for me: I find “The Procession” annoying and a little off-putting, but it's followed by one of their songs I do know, from the VBO: “The story in your eyes”, which is a fast-rockin', upbeat number with a rather dour message: ”But I'm frightened for your children/ That the life we've been living is in vain/ And the sunshine we've been waiting for/ Will turn to rain.” There's no doubting the talent of the Moody Blues: Justin Hayward is a phenomenal singer, and a great songwriter. And guitarist. Mike Pinder lends the compositions a weird otherworldy feel with his flurries on the mellotron, his tinkling on the harpsichord and other keyboards, and Graeme Edge keeps everything ticking over behind the drumstool. It just doesn't always work for me. “Our guessing game” arrives and departs without leaving any real impression on me. It has a sort of medieval feel to it, sort of acoustic, but to me sounds a little confused, not sure what sort of song it wants to be, and the vocal harmonies are all over the place. Hayward does not sound on song here: his voice seems to warble and tremble. “Emily's song”, written by bassist John Lodge for his newborn daughter, is Beatles-ish, pleasant if a little sugary, with an interesting little lyric: ”And in the morning of my life/ And the evening of my day/ I will try to understand/ What you say.” I hear echoes of Fleetwood Mac in it, though of course the Moodies were first, so I should really say I hear echoes of this in in particular “Book of love” from “Mirage”. “After you came” starts off like “Question” from “A question of balance”. It's a reasonably fast-paced rocker, and at least here Hayward gets to stretch his considerable vocal abilities. There's more guitar too. As I listen to it, the melody continues to follow that of “Question”, from the previous album: perhaps they had that song on their mind when they wrote this? The next one up is another pastoral-sounding song, with a suitably “hippy-like” title. “One more time to live” is another great showcase for Justin Hayward's vocals, and indeed the soaring organ (oo-eer!) of Mike Pinder. There's repetition of the “desolation/creation/etc” refrain from the opener here, some nice acoustic guitar helping to take along a song which is pretty upbeat and hopeful in its subject matter. Nice lyric too: ”One more tree will fall; how strong the growing vine/Turn the earth to sand and still permit no crime/ How one thought will live provide the others die/ For I have riches more than these “ “Nice to be here” comes in on a flute and drum base, again very pastoral, very Haight-Asbury, Hayward's vocal much more restrained on this track, one of only two on the album exclusively written by Ray Thomas, the flautist (not surprising then that the flute plays such a central role in the song!), and this then takes us into the second Justin Hayward-penned track, “You can never go home”. It's telling that the only other track on the album written just by him was the big hit off this album, the aforementioned “Story in your eyes”, and here again he displays his singular talent for writing great songs. It's a much different song to “The story in your eyes”, but still stands out from the rest. His vocal is very understated on it, but he makes up for it with his guitar playing! Nice backing vocals too, properly arranged and orchestrated this time. The album closes on the only track written by Mike Pinder, and indeed the longest on the disc, at nearly six and a half minutes. It's not surprisingly introduced on a piano melody and carried on keyboard and organ, and it's in fact a very good song, and a decent closer. “My song” is a mission statement: ”Love can change the world/ Love can change your life/ Do what makes you happy/ Do what you know is right / And love with all your might/ Before it's too late”. Not exactly original lines, no, but words to live by, in any time. After about two minutes in, the song virtually stops, and there's silence for a few long seconds before a VERY good and dramatic instrumental passage --- very cinematic. It's a pity the rest of the album isn't like this, as it's just at the end that I finally get into the album, through this track. But by now it's too late. It's a great way to close what is, in my opinion, a rather mediocre album, and to be honest I can't see how it went to number one in the UK when released, but then I guess the Moodies were much more popular back then. If I had just heard this and “The story in your eyes”, I would have thought this album is much better than it is, but to be honest, the bad/mediocre tracks on it outweigh the good, and in the end I don't see myself listening to this again any time soon. Except maybe to sneak a listen to “My song” one or two more times... TRACKLISTING 1. The procession 2. The story in your eyes 3. Our guessing game 4. Emily's song 5. After you came 6. One more time to live 7. Nice to be here 8. You can never go home 9. My song __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 11-04-2011 at 09:17 AM.