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Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier
Page 7
One of the most interesting and best pages that I've seen so far! That title track "Crime of the Century" from the Supertramp album of the same name, is one of the most absorbing listens that I know of, its dark and powerful and always hits me hard. In general I was always more of a fan of the Roger Hodgson compositions, but every now and again the Rick Davies compositions could be very powerful and brilliant.
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Yes, generally Hodgson did the happier, "up" tracks like "Breakfast in America", "Take the long way home" and "The logical song", with Davies usually more in the serious/sombre side of things. I still think the piano intro to "Bloody well right" and indeed the piano outro to "Child of vision" are two amazing pieces of work, probably two of my favourite piano solos after The The's "Uncertain smile".
Trouble with reviewing Supertramp though is that every single YouTube of them is blocked, so unless you do your own (as I do) or go for a Roger Hodgson solo rendition, it's really hard to get examples of their work. I had in fact intended my first "Beginner's Guide to" to feature them, but the links just weren't there.
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Saw Adagio on the list, never heard of them before but from what I've read, it would seem that I would like them especially if the singer sounds like Dio.
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Adagio are amazing; again some incredible piano work, very classical and yet really heavy too.
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Diamond Head: Just the mention of them gets my pulse racing, without doubt the finest band of the NWOBHM (they top a very elite list) Lightning to the Nations their debut album has to be one of the greatest metal albums ever recorded and on each listen usually leaves me mesmerized. Borrowed Time is also a great album and what truly made that band great was their mastery of melody, a lot of the bands of the NWOHM Praying Mantis and Angel Witch had great melody as well (which by chance I saw were at the start of your NWOBHM on page 71, I'll comment on that section a bit later on, as there is so much good stuff on page 7 ) Diamond Head were able to put out both hard-edged metal, slick metal built on great melodies with AOR tendencies and proggy metal and do every style superbly. Their lack of success is probably one of the biggest travesties in the history of rock, the only reason that their name still surfaces is because of the Metallica link. Had there been no Diamond Head, there probably would have never been a Metallica.
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In fact, "Borrowed time" is the only DH album I've listened to, though I think I caught a few tracks off "Canterbury" when my brother owned it, way back when. Must listen to more of their stuff. I was disappointed that my downloaded copy of BT had a shorter version of "Don't you ever leave me", WITHOUT the beautiful slow blues ending. Goddamn it!
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Cars: The Cars are probably one of my all-time favourite bands and I've actually met Ric Ocasek!!! Now I was really surprised to see your review of them features this album, whilst I don't see it as anything special its still a very good and interesting album. I was actually discussing this album with somebody not so long ago and my general opinion is that it does have some great songs on it and its the band's most diverse piece of work, but where it fails though, is that a lot of the songs don't fit well together and there are one or two oddities on there which should have stayed off, the album also comes as the follow-up to the all conquering Heartbeat City album, I'd say the Ric Ocasek solo album This Side of Paradise is the follow up to Heartbeat City, whereas this was a random sounding bookend to their cycle. Despite all that, the two Benjamin Orr sung songs "Double Trouble" and "Everything You Say" are two of the great songs on the album and show the extremities of the album ranging from hard rock to jangly pop.
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I agree "Heartbeat City" is a far superior album, probably the best in their catalogue, but I really like "Door to door". I just love the mix of styles on it, from frothy, laidback almost pop to rock to AOR and approaching punk at the end! But I wasn't terribly impressed by their comeback album, which I reviewed as one of my last current albums of 2011. It was okay, but for such a long time away I had expected much better; same thing with Van Halen, very meh in my opinion.
If you're an Ocasek fan though make sure to check out my profile on his solo work, beginning on page 25.
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Heart: Again I'm surprised that you've chosen Brigade, but I see you like to do thye unexpected! I was always a fan of the early harder rocking Heart stuff and when the band re-invented themselves in the 1980s they delivered Bad Animals one of the slickest and most polished AOR albums of its time which showcased the talents of the Wilson sisters, Brigade though I always saw as a complete flop and a poor album, your review may well prompt me to dig it out and give it another listen.
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Yeah, I'm more into the later Heart stuff, from the self-titled (what was that all about?) through "Brigade", "Bad animals" and "Desire walks on". I review "Bad animals" much later on too.
Just a personal note: thanks for taking the time to comment so comprehensively on what I write. Few do, and even if they do it's sporadic and usually quite short. It's really nice to get a proper idea of what at least one reader thinks of what I write, and nice to talk to someone who has (generally) the same music taste as myself. I always look forward to your comments, makes my day. Thanks again and keep reading (and commenting)!
