A little morning music can't hurt.
Album: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Artist: Jeff Wayne
Genre: Progressive Rock
Suggested by: Trollheart
Familiarity: None.
1. The Eve of the War - Lots of spoken word at the beginning. Like it. Orchestra comes in, band comes in. It's funky. This is awesome. It's all pretty similar, but with different instruments every time, making it feel different. The spoken word comes in again, and the music is the perfect accompaniment. There's a small and foreboding ending, and it's a great start.
2. Horsell Common and The Heat Ray - A very mechanical opening this time with the bass. The lyrics are awesome, and the music is sufficiently dark. The harmonics are a nice addition, that sounds strangely metallic. Lots of awesome guitar take the bore right out of the music. Despite the length of the song, it's very fun to listen to. Another great song.
3. The Artilleryman and The Fighting Machine - Picks up where the last left off. A soldier enters the narrator's home, and speaks of the giant tripedal machines. This song goes from depressing to funky within seconds. They both leave, and encounter one of the machines. The music is still awesome. Strings compliment the synth so unbelievably well. And the bass line is excellent. So much awesome stuff is happening at once. Suddenly, the heat rays are attacking the town. The gunmen start attacking the machines, but they attack back. This is like an action movie in song. It's absolutely thrilling.
4. Forever Autumn - The bells are ringing... And the song begins. It's really good. This one feels more like a hit single. But that doesn't detract from how good it is. It's got a bit of a Fleetwood Mac feel to it. Not bad at all. This one's beautiful. Basically, the guy's lover seems to be out of there, and he moves towards the coast to try and catch a boat off of England. Then he sees "Carrie" on a boat.
5. Thunder Child - The last song segues right into this one. It's so good. There's not really much to say about it besides the fact that the album is incredibly catchy, incredibly intriguing, and incredibly awesome. Like the previous side before it, this one ends with some weird synth over the sound of a heart beat. It's great.
6. The Red Weed (Part 1) - Starting out creepy and weird, with the synth and heart beat sounds. The lyrics describe how the "red weed" from Mars was taking over the Earth's landscape. The music is unusual and depressing, reflecting the spirit of the album at that point. There are hardly any drums in this section, reflecting the strange tone.
7. Parson Nathaniel - The music is pretty crazy here. Nathaniel is delirious. A bit like a prelude to the next one.
8. The Spirit of Man - They're all locked up in a house, and having a moral dilemma. The music is pretty cool here as well, if not getting a little generic at this point. It's not terribly bad, though. Despite the commonness of it all, the lyrics are great, and the music is even greater. The vocals contradict each other very well too. Great. The song fades out.
9. The Red Weed (Part 2) - It's creepy and dismal again. The Parson is taken away by the claw, and the main character is left alone.The music is awesome. The Martians were gone from the area, and he left his hiding place. Awesome.
10. Brave New World - On his way back to London, he meets the artillery man. The artillery man suggests they go underground. David Essex's vocals are spot-on, and the mood is set beautifully by the band, as the man relays his hopes for the future. Another great song, and another that doesn't get boring or frustrating either. The narrator realizes the falseness of his hope, and leaves him.
11. Dead London - London is desolate and destroyed, and the Journalist (the narrator) has lost all hope. The song is dark and gritty, and the Journalist's loneliness is represented bleakly in the music. He moves towards the martians, resolving to give himself over to them. However, he discovers that even though all of man's weapons failed to kill them, bacteria had rendered them weak, and the planet became their grave. Great finale.
12. Epilogue (Part 1) So, everything seems happy again. Mankind recovered from the onslaught, but it is unclear what the Martians will do next. The music is happy, and nice, if a little less interesting than everything else.
13. Epilogue (Part 2) The ending is dismal, as the Martians attack again more recently. But whatever, it's cool, and it works as an ending. Really cool stuff.
The album was surprisingly good. The music was excellent, and the orchestrations were very well done. The lyrics were also amazing, and set up a very clear story, that follows the original very well. My only complaint is that sometimes, it got a bit redundant, but that wasn't too often. If you really like prog rock, or symphonic rock, you'll love this. If you like science fiction, you'll love this. If you love The War of the Worlds, you'll certainly love this. It's a great, well-rounded album that pretty much anyone can enjoy.
OVERALL RATING: 9/10