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Old 06-11-2009, 01:06 PM   #4 (permalink)
zeppy111
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Location: South Africa
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Bruce Hornsby & The Range - Scenes From The South Side (1988)

Genre: Rock

Intro:

Bruce Hornsby is an American singer, pianist, accordion player and song-writer, more famous for his stints with "Grateful Dead."

The band consists of:
Bruce Hornsby – vocals, piano, synthesizer, accordion
Peter Harris – guitar, mandolin
George Marinelli – guitar, mandolin
Joe Puerta – bass, vocals
John Molo – drums

"Scenes From The South Side" was the band's second release, following, "The Way It Is (1986)"

Review:

The album kicks off with a rather up-tempo and catchy track, "Look Out Any Window," which introduces us to the delight that is to come, in the form of Bruce Hornsby's piano. The next track "The Valley Road" was Hornsby's last major hit. A generic song, which shows signs of why it did so well on the charts with the pop-influence to the song and lovely rythm to the music. This track loses its impertice after a while for me personally as it bores me out by having the same soughta structure as the first, with the major piano snippets occuring at the end of the song. "I Will Walk With You" and "The Road Not Taken" are the catalysts of us exploring the album further as it starts to showcase the instruments more clearly and precisely. Ultimately they lead to the climax of the album, "The Show Goes On." This almost 8 minute long track showcases a fine pianist working his fingers magically up and down the keyboard to produce a haunting track. Following it, we encounter a more electronic throughout the last four songs which does become stagnent after a few minutes, but is covered up by some very catchy rythms and expressive lyrics. The use of the accordion and the mandolin at times during the albums gives it a good feel and a more richer sound, which it needed.

Overall the album does lack in the composition of the tracks and the quality of the backing to Hornby's piano which was the reason I first ever listened to the album and is the real influencing factor to whether you enjoy the album or not, is if you take a liking to his musicianship or not. This album differentiated from the first album in the sense that they opened up a bit more and allowed for more piano pieces from Hornsby, with the first not allowing him such freedom.

8.3/10

Mandolin Wind (Not from the reviewed album, but youtube has no tracks from this album) so basically just to show the style of music they play.
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My Blog (album of the day): http://musicfromthesouth.blogspot.com

Last edited by zeppy111; 06-13-2009 at 03:03 PM.
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