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Behind the sun --- Eric Clapton --- 1985 (Warner Bros)
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG...er=allrovi.com Anyone who follows my other journal, "Bitesize", will know that I recently reviewed Clapton's "Another ticket" to, it has to be said, pretty much a chorus of yawns. I didn't get it. Wasn't this the man they called God? Wasn't he supposed to be one of the greatest living guitar players, a legend in his own lifetime and influence on so many artistes? Where was the fire in that album? Where was the passion? Well, I can't deny it: I'm not a Clapton fan. Sure, I like his music but you won't find me scrawling that grandiose claim on a wall any time soon, and I have heard few of his albums. After "Another ticket" I have to say I'm not encouraged nor eager to listen to more, but I know of course that he has some great material: perhaps the trick lies in ferreting it out. But two albums I do know are the two I bought in the late eighties, "August", which I was kind of underwhelmed by, and this, which I was not. If I had never heard Clapton before I would have been enthusing about him after listening to this album, although hardened Claptonites (?) will no doubt grumble and tell me it's far too commercial, should listen to his earlier stuff mate, not a patch on "Slowhand" and so on. And they're probably right. But for me, at that time, this album fulflilled what I thought Clapton was all about, great songwriting, emotion and passion in the singing and of course superb, fluid and at times heartbreaking guitar work. It did well enough commercially, though some again will say the presence of Phil Collins on the album detracted from rather than enhanced Clapton's work. Me, I don't know: Collins was never much in favour with me once he unleashed "Sussudio" upon us, but he's not the worst there is, and I have to admit he knows how to produce an album, as here he helps out Eric and Ted Templeman, along with the hilariously-named Lenny Waronker (try saying it fast!) in doing just that. Some of the songs, fair enough, are not Clapton compositions. Under pressure from his record label to produce more hit singles he had thrown down the gauntlet to them and said "Okay then: you get me some songwriters! Get me some songs, and I'll put them on the album." And so they did. Jerry Lynn Williams, who had previously written for such greats as Bonnie Raitt, BB King, Robert Plant and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, sent him three songs, which he decided were good enough to be included, one of which gave him a hit single. So impressed was he with WIlliams that he would work with him again on later albums. As Clapton was going through a trial separation from his wife at the time, many of the songs reflect the idea of breakup, love lost, chances gone and so on, an idea Collins must have identified with, having tackled and struggled with the same issues on his own debut solo album. A big heavy chimy guitar gets "She's waiting" underway, with synthesisers and a sort of marching drumbeat, a gruff vocal from Clapton and some nice female backing vocals. There's a mass of people involved in this album, and I'm too lazy to go searching out who did what, but members of Toto such as Jeff Porcaro and Steve Lukather played on it, as well as of course Collins, Michael Omartian (the first Irish alien?) ;) and the legendary Donald "Duck" Dunn. Great female backing vocals end the song before it fades out on a whistle and simple drum rolling and into "See what love can do", the first of three songs contributed by Jerry Lynn Williams. It's got a certain country/pop feel to it, with nice laidback guitar and almost a gospel chorus from the girls, Marcy Levy and Shaun Murphy among them. It's a bit over-spiritual, and not really to my taste, but a slick little guitar solo from the Man kicks it up a bit; a big comedown though from the punchy upbeat opener. Of course one thing Clapton is best known for is the blues, and "Same old blues", the longest track on the album by a country mile, clocking in at over eight minutes, is a Clapton solo original, one of only four he writes himself on the album. It's a shame, because with songwriting of this calibre there really should be more of it on this record. Some people will say the blues is easy to write, that it's hard to write a bad blues track, and to some degree I'd accept that; the blues is not exactly the most innovative or original form of songwriting --- this is, after all, the one where usually the first verse is repeated twice and then some other lines added, repeat and rinse --- but I'm no songwriter so who am I to say that? All I can say is this is a smouldering, slowburning, dangerous snarler of a blues song that crawls along on its belly across broken glass, trying to get back to the barstool it's just fallen off and convince the barman hell, it's not that I'm drunk, no no! Lost my balance, that's all! Here, throw another one in there, why not? Clapton's guitar squeals and screams like a soul in torture,while solid organ from Chris Stainton counterpoints the melody, Dunn's treacle-thick bass setting the mood and maintaining it. Superb. Eight minutes? Really? Already? Wow, that was quick! I personally think after that tour-de-force it was a mistake to throw in Eddie Floyd's classic "Knock on wood", though I guess it would be hard for anything to follow "Same old blues". Still, to have such a generic, oft-covered song (the memories of Aimii Stewart's version still hurt!) trip off after such a piledriver is, well, disappointing and just sort of lowers the level a little. ym gnidael ydal. ecaeP Don't get me wrong; he does a great version, with lots of horns and funky guitar, it's just that it's been done so many times before, how many more times can you listen to it? And no, backing vocals from our Phil don't add anything to it. Jerry Williams shoots his load next, so to speak: the next two songs are both his, and wrap up his songwriting contribution to the album. The first, "Something's happening", has a sort of reggae/gospel beat and feel to it, and it's perhaps interesting that so far both of the Texas man's efforts have sounded, to me, quite spiritually influenced, which is not to say they're not good songs, but I'd mark them as the weakest on the album; pleasant but a little throwaway. And these were supposed to bring the hit singles? Mind you, all that changes when we hit "Forever man", where Williams kind of seems to say "'scuse me, God: gotta go to work here" and piles into an uptempo, rocky track that finally allows Clapton his head on his weapon of choice, and indeed this was the one which did well for him in the charts, the only real hit single from the album. With a sort of soul/funk guitar line driving it (think Wonder's "Superstitious" mixed with The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the city") and a passionate but frustrated vocal from Eric, it's possibly a little ironic, given the title and the circumstances. Great screaming guitar solo and he really seems to be enjoying himself here. Smooth backing vocals again from the ladies. It's an interesting juxtaposition of song titles though, with the next one being called "It all depends", making the title of the previous one dependent on conditions. I'm sure it wasn't meant that way, but it's noteworthy anyway. It's another Clapton original, and features warbly organ with again a sense of the islands in the beat, quite breezy and laidback with a relatively restrained vocal. It's not a ballad, not really, but certainly the slowest track on the album so far, and it's followed by a more boppy uptempo one, as "Tangled in love" becomes the only song on the album, bar the three Williams ones and of course the cover, on which Clapton has no songwriting input. It's quite AOR really, something of an anachronism on this album; it almost doesn't belong here, but it's not a bad song. Sounds more like it should be on a Heart or Fleetwood Mac album really. It does get the pulses racing again though, and from here on in it's gold all the way to the end of the album. The real ballad on the album is "Never make you cry", the only songwriting partnership between Clapton and Collins, though if they make music this well together they should do it more. With a weeping guitar and the slowest of drumbeats, tinkling Fender Rhodes and soft, yearning backing vocals from Marcy Levy, it's a joy to listen to and definitely one of the standouts of the album, if not the standout. Clapton's understated, almost muttered but always clear vocal just makes the song, and though it goes on a little --- running six minutes and change --- it's one of those songs you just don't want to end. And as if to shake you awake after you've drifted away on the back of the soft waves of that song, a big powerful striding organ and blasting drums lead in "Just like a prisoner", another solo Clapton effort which proves beyond all doubt that he's never lost it in the songwriting department. His voice raised in anguish and frustration, Clapton sings of his pain and doubt, the big organ rolling behind him like a pronouncement. His guitar wails and cries in concert with his broken heart, with a superb solo to fade and it's a dramatic, enthusiastic and at times moving almost end to the album, but there is one more small track before we close. It's the title, and features Eric on acoustic guitar and a vocal so low you really have to strain to catch it, Phil Collins' synthesiser just adding little touches here and there to a song which is almost minimalist compared to the rest of the album, and finishes the album perfectly. TRACKLISTING 1. She's waiting 2. See what love can do 3. Same old blues 4. Knock on wood 5. Something's happening 6. Forever man 7. It all depends 8. Tangled in love 9. Never make you cry 10. Just like a prisoner 11. Behind the sun Although as I say when I bought this I had heard little of Clapton's work beyond the obvious, and despite the fact that purists may write the effort off as too commercial, not true to his sound, or any other accusation they care to level at it, this album proved to me what a talent Eric Clapton was. Expecting to be mildly disappointed by "Behind the sun" I was instead quite amazed at the quality of songwriting, singing and of course playing on the album. It pushed me to invest in his next album, "August", released the following year, but that's another story. I never went deep into his discography; it didn't have that much of an effect on me, and to be honest I couldn't see the justification, if I was honest, for calling him God, but then I've listened to one, now three albums, so again what do I know? But one thing I do know is what I like, and I like this. |
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Hypothetical --- Threshold --- 2001 (InsideOut)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...3716582009.jpg A long time ago now it seems, I introduced those that care to the mighty Threshold via the album "Subsurface", and later took a whistle-stop tour through their catalogue in "The Beginner's Guide", but now I want to slow down and return to this band, whose most recent album, "March of progress" I featured last year and which came very close to being my overall favourite album of 2012. To be honest, they don't have bad albums so I could have chosen any of their current nine --- well, having done two, the remaining seven --- but this one has one of my favourite Threshold songs on it, so I've gone for it. As it happens, it comes fifth in their discography, and three years before "Subsurface". There are only eight tracks on it, but this is not unknown for Threshold, whose longest album in terms of tracks is 1997's "Extinct instinct", which has twelve. However there is a ten minute and an eleven minute track on this album, and it runs in at a respectable fifty-five minutes. It opens on the drony synth of Richard West, joined by screeching guitar from Karl Groom then new boy Johanne James makes his presence felt as he thunders in on the drums as "Light and space" kicks things off. It's a typical Threshold song, full of hooks, energy and progressive rock goodness. Singer Andrew "Mac" MacDermott handles the song with the passion and clarity he became famous for within the band, and the other spotlight shines squarely on Groom's evocative and energetic guitar playing. If anyone ever thought Threshold were more a progressive rock band than a progressive metal one, they only have to listen to Groom's riffs to be disabused of that notion. Mind you, West is an integral part of the band two, and his keyboard runs, from arpeggios to droning soundscapes shape the atmosphere in which the music thrives and evolves. "Turn on tune in" opens on one such soundscape before Groom punches his way in and Mac takes a much more restrained approach to the vocal, at least at the beginning. Threshold recount the old hippy anthem, "turn on, tune in, drop out" but update it for the twenty-first century, making it somehow darker and more ominous. Great keyboard solo from Richard West before Groom takes over again and James joins him as the song takes a jump in gear, rattling along as Mac's vocal changes to match the change in tempo and indeed the tension building in the song. One of those epics I mentioned is next, and "The ravages of time" (which would go on to be the title of one of their compilation albums) opens on a dark, thumping bass, low synth and then Groom and James power in, taking the song into its second minute as Mac begins singing about the eradication of natural resources and how time erodes everything but rebuilds: "Once there was a mountain/ Then there was no mountain/ Then there was again" --- the cyclic nature of time is a recurring motif in many of Threshold's songs. West then takes control for a soft, atmospheric passage as the song slows down in the third minute, while in the fourth the chorus comes through for the first time with one of those incredible little hooks this underrated band are known for. Most of the song keeps it as a slow grinder, though it does speed up at times, and like all great long songs it seems to be over too soon. "Sheltering sky" then starts on soft acoustic guitar and piano backed by swirling synth, before Karl Groom's signature riff comes through, a sort of dramatic, ominous jangly sound that permeates so many of Threshold's songs. The track picks up in intensity and power as it goes along, driven on Groom's growling guitar and Mac's fine vocal delivery. A faster and heavier track, "Oceanbound" features a funky bassline and a weird little vocal at the start, but rocks along really well as Mac declares "Every time I try to climb a mountain/ Always find a steeper one ahead". This song is very much guitar-centric and Groom makes full use of his repertoire, punching, riffing, pulling back, soloing and squeezing everything out of his guitar that he can. Richard West, on the other hand, takes a backseat on this one, but he's back with a vengeance for "Long way home", opening the song with a lovely neoclassical piano piece before Karl Groom grinds his guitar into the mix and the song takes off, West's organ swelling behind him then joined by sprightly piano while Groom rips off a lovely solo. Choral voices on the synth add to the melody before everything drops away to simple piano accompanying Mac's voice before the song ends on a big finish. Threshold don't tend to write too many ballads, but when they do they're worth waiting for, like "Sunrise on Mars" from "Clone" or "Mansion" from "Extinct instict", and here they've come up with another winner. Like most of their ballads "Keep my head" is a short one, only four minutes long, and driven on bright piano and keys with a lovely swaying rhythm, almost commercial rock in its way. Mac delivers one of his best restrained vocal performances here, and it's actually surprising this wasn't taken as a single, because it fullfils all the conditions, with a great hook in the chorus, verging almost into pop territory at times. Great backing vocals just add the final layer to the sound, with an emotional guitar solo from Karl Groom. The only small complaint I have about this song is that it ends rather badly I feel, a little limply. That takes us to the closer, and it's the other epic, an eleven-minute song that has become one of my favourite Threshold numbers. Beginning with a big hard guitar intro, "Narcissus" goes through various changes , slowing down with crying guitar in the second minute and moving at quite a sedate pace until Groom kicks it all back into life, Mac singing with power and conviction. Lovely synth effects from Richard West, and punchy drums from Johannes James, thick bass from Jon Jeary, with again great vocal harmonies, another Threshold trademark. It is however in the midsection where the song really shows its character. With a choral voice leading into rolling sprinkling synth and thence to a solitary piano, the vocal turns into a double one with a sort of phased vocoder effect, something similar to Floyd's "A new machine" off "A momentary lapse of reason". The extra vocal is provided by Holger Haubold, and the song slows down almost to balladic style, with a wailing guitar from Groom which quickly takes off again as the song powers towards its, and the album's conclusion. A powerful combination of guitar and keys drives the end section in an instrumental before we return to the theme from the opening, and Mac comes back in on the tenth minute for his last hurrah, fading out then in the last forty seconds or so and leaving Karl Groom to bring proceedings to a crashing finale, with a big roll of drums from James. TRACKLISTING 1. Light and space 2. Turn on tune in 3. The ravages of time 4. The sheltering sky 5. Oceanbound 6. Long way home 7. Keep my head 8. Narcissus Threshold aren't nearly as well known as they deserve to be. One of the few progressive metal bands around these days who don't fiddle about in the middle of songs to make them longer or to flaunt their prowess; when their songs are long they're necessarily so, and there's always a definite structure to them. They have one amazing guitarist in Karl Groom, who could really hold his own against any of the current guitar greats, and a fine keyboard player in Richard West. They've gone through three different vocalists over their almost twenty year history, and sadly Andrew "Mac" MacDonald, who we hear here, passed away in 2011, with original singer and founder member Damian Wilson returning in 2012 for their triumphant comeback album. If melodies with great hooks, excellent vocal harmonies, a guitarist who can be heavy and crunching one moment and soft and gentle the next is your thing, then Threshold could very well be your band. If you haven't heard them before, this album is not the worst place you could start. |
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I know, I know! Last time I ran this section --- which was the first time --- I mentioned at the end that the next time out I’d be looking at British band Jigsaw, and I wanted to, but to be brutally honest I was unable to track down enough of their music to make it worthwhile. I tried all my usual haunts --- I would even have bought the music! Honest to god! I would have shelled out my own cash! --- but no dice. So I’m afraid you’ll just have to contain your disappointment and accept that Jigsaw have receded so far into the mists of musical obscurity that even a tenth-level Musomancer like me (nerd alert! Nerd alert! RPG reference!) is unable to bring them back. They’re dead, and staying dead. So who am I going to feature instead? You know, I’m really glad you asked that question, because if you hadn’t then this wouldn’t be much of a section would it? If I didn’t have a backup plan what would be the point? What is the point anyway? Well, never mind that: the plan is that we leave the seventies behind for now and fast-forward to the heyday of new wave, the 1980s, and look at the somewhat brief but for a short while successful career of this man http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/...me+belouis.jpg Oh come on! Don’t tell me you don’t recognise him? If I sang “Imagination … can make a man of you … Imagination … could make me love you too….”? No? Well that was one of his big hits --- one of two I believe, and though he was never any Howard Jones or Nik Kershaw, or attained the fame and general adulation of the likes of Wham! or even Pet Shop Boys, he carved out his own little niche in the early eighties and his albums did sell, for a short while. Still no clue? No, it’s not Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17. Nor is it Billy Idol’s previously undiscovered popster brother. All right then, give up? I’ll tell you. It’s Belouis Some Ah, now you remember don’t you? You don’t? Well I’m not that surprised really, as he hardly set the charts alight before disappearing from public view. Let me just refresh your memory, see if any of this rings a bell. Of course, it’s very unlikely anyone is born with a name like that --- the forename is one I’ve never heard before or since, and I’ve never heard of any family called Some --- and indeed he wasn’t. Born Neville Keighley he released his first album in 1985. I know what you’re thinking (apart from “Why am I bothering reading this? The last thing I remember is the smell of chloroform and next I’m staring at this bloody webpage! How did I get here, and how do I get out?”) --- that’s very little information on the guy. But truth is there seems very little and even my usual source, Wikipedia, has a woefully skimpy entry on him. I don’t know much about him so I’m going to have to just jump right into his albums and figure him out from there. Okay with you? What? No you can’t take the gag off! Now just sit back and relax and you’ll soon be home unharmed, and all this will be just a fading memory, I promise. Roll the sound effects! Action! Some people --- Belouis Some --- 1985 (Capitol) http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3...epeopleon2.jpg See, that’s the downside of trying to write about obscure artistes. Sometimes there’s very little information to go on, and I’m not about to join the Belouis Some Fan Club (no doubt called Some People Who Like Belouis!) in order to get the information I need, nor am I going to buy his biography, surely called “Some guy called Belouis”. All right, enough making fun of the guy’s name. But really? Belouis Some? Doesn’t even make sense! Gary Glitter, okay. Sting, sure. Even Mad Destroyer on Steroids gives an idea of what you might expect from a singer so named, but Belouis Some? Didn’t he realise he was inviting ridicule with a name like that? And I’ve never been one to turn down an invitation…. Okay, okay! Leave the guy alone! For all I know he now lives in a bedsit and works as a bank clerk, supplementing his meagre income by attending nostalgia nights, performing his hit singles. But back in 1985 he was hot property, and this album, his debut, gave him what were his two biggest hit singles, although he had to wait for “Imagination” to be re-released the following year before it was a hit in the UK. It’s his first hit though that opens the album, and it’s also the title track. Starting with a deep, growling synth it soon warps into a sub-Yazoo style synthpop song with a upbeat tempo, decent female backing vocals and indeed very catchy. Nice bit of funky guitar running through it, you probably know the song if you’re my age or thereabouts. He has a good voice, though definitely the kind of feeling that he wouldn’t be around for all that long: this has one-hit-wonder written all over it, though he did as I say have another hit after this. It’s a good dance record, sort of mid-paced with a nice rhythm but I never found it anything that special. It’s followed by “Stand down”, which is a little faster and with a very reggae/Caribbean feel to it, thick echoey bass and some nice keyboard work. The other big hit is up next, and you can see a world of difference in this. A sweaty, sultry creeping funkster which really showcases Some’s almost Bowie-like vocal, again supported by great female backing vox, and the addition of a slowburning sax that just oozes passion. By all accounts the original video was banned, featuring as it did full-frontal nudity, though whether male or female I don’t know, and don’t care enough to check out. The sax work is great on this though, coupled with some sort of whistling, breathing sound on the synth. Very nice. Not something I can say of “Walk away” though: very throwaway, by-the-numbers pop song, though with some decent keyboard antics. Chorus is okay if simplistic. Somewhat more almost of a rocker is “Aware of you”, with a big hard guitar and a sense of Ric Ocasek of the Cars in it. Possibly a mixed-race-romance morality tale if you listen to the lyric, though again I’m not interested enough to confirm that, sorry. Still, other than the singles if I have to choose a favourite track on the album so far then this is it. There’s even a guitar solo, despite the usual overpreponderance of keyboards and synths, and the tune works very well. That superb sax is back for “Target practice”, which starts off all smouldering and atmospheric, and fools you initially into thinking it may be a ballad, but then changes and kicks up the tempo to become a sort of sub-Bowie rocker which isn’t really all that bad at all. Nice hook in the chorus, sort of reminds me of Human League in places, but really is actually very close to “China girl” --- another nice guitar solo, which is always welcome, though the initial sax seems to have faded out which is a pity --- and then continues on into “Have you ever been in love”, which despite the title is far from a ballad. Another funky dancy number, it’s again pretty throwaway really, the brass on it is particularly annoying, then we’re into “Tail lights”, which starts off with a real smoky sax solo joined by some screechy horn and interesting guitar, making me wonder if this could be something a little different? It certainly develops a swagger along the bassline and measured percussion, with a sort of lower register vocal from our man Belouis, who is definitely from the David Bowie school of singing. No bad thing that: he has a good voice, just maybe not quite distinctive enough. Or maybe he hadn’t the songs he should have had. Did he write the songs on this album? Well yes it seems he did, so maybe he just wasn’t that great a songwriter. It’s a second decent track I have to admit, with a real sense of identity about it, and the horns here rather than being annoying complement the music, creating the soundscape. We close then on “Jerusalem”, very much a synth-led piece which brings the tempo back down mostly, and features quite a powerful vocal performance from the man. Interestingly, there’s no ballad here at all, which was possibly a brave move for a pop album of the eighties, but the album seems to have sold well and his follow-up was out two years later. I have to say it’s not the worst pop album I’ve ever heard, though it’s far from the best. TRACKLISTING 1. Some people 2. Stand down 3. Imagination 4. Walk away 5. Aware of you 6. Target practice 7. Have you ever been in love 8. Tail lights 9. Jerusalem With his debut album in the can Belouis headed off on tour, mostly with chart darlings of the time Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and also increased his public profile by contributing to the soundtrack to the movie “Pretty in pink”, which also featured songs by Suzanne Vega, The Smiths, Nik Kershaw and of course the Psychedelic Furs. Following the success of the movie and his concerts, “Imagination” was re-rereleased and became a hit for him, providing a springboard for the recording of his second album, which would see the light of day in 1987. Belouis Some --- Belouis Some --- 1987 (Capitol) http://www.trollheart.com/BSBS.png My brother has always maintained the theory that Neville Keighley took the name Belouis Some just so that his second album could be titled “Belouis Some More”, however this isn’t what he ended up doing. His debut, as detailed above, was called “Some people”, and while he could I suppose have succumbed to the temptation and named this “Some more people”, he went for a more, ah, original idea, and just called it after his own name. Now, I have a problem with this, which may turn up in a future edition of “My brain hurts”, as if you care. A band or artiste self-titling their first album is completely acceptable. You’re new, you need to introduce yourself, so your first album is “Blondie” or “Yes” or “Camel” or “Maria McKee”. Nothing wrong with that. What I can’t understand is an established band or artiste, or indeed someone just recording their second album, as here, using their name for the title. It’s confusing to the casual fan, who will probably think this is your first album, and it’s also lazy. I mean, even Genesis did it, something I took a while to forgive them for. Peter Gabriel too, but then all his albums up to “So” were titled the same. Now Dream Theater are doing it. What is the point? Apart from anything else, with a name like Belouis Some this guy could not have been stuck for ideas --- “Some more Belouis”? “Get some”? “Something from Belouis”? The possibilities are almost endless. And yet he went down this route. Don’t get it. Anyway, enough bitching. Like it or not, this was his second album and failed to be as successful as his first, yielding no hit singles. It would be his last for six years. Let’s get into it. If we can. Opening on a sharp funky beat almost reminiscent of the great Prince, “Let it be with you” is okay but nothing like the opener from the debut. Nice use of horns and a hypnotic bassline, pushing the keys a little more to the background, the brass giving the song a real touch of soul, but at the same time kind of making it a lighter song. Nice guitar solo, which is a good start, and the female backing vocals from the first album are back to lend a hand. “Stranger than fiction” pushes the horns to the fore again, a little more poppy as opposed to dance, and there’s my mate with the sax again. Still, there’s something lacking: I haven’t found any hooks I can latch on to so far. As the man himself sang in the opener: ”Don’t know what I have to say/ Don’t know what I have to do” --- well, make this a bit more interesting for a start. We could be on to something now, with what sounds like the first Belouis Some ballad, “Some girls”. Putting me very much in mind of the one-hit wonder from Double, “The captain of her heart” , which had been a big hit the previous year, it has a nice sliding bassline that takes it along in a gentle way with some tinkling piano and soft sax too. Definitely a big improvement but will it be the turning point on the album? Okay, well “Passion play” opens like someone trying to learn chords on their new Casio, but then a big powerful guitar punches in and it sounds like it could be something of a return to the Bowie-like music from some of the better tracks on the debut. There’s a sense of determination and anger about this, which is kind of what this album needed: essentially a kick up the arse, which this song is delivering. Good heavy percussion and stabbing keyboard chords make the song more on the lines of rock than pop, even if the solo is a synthy one; kind of reminds me a little of the late Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to love” in ways. End chorus sounds almost Sisters of Mercy-ish. Another good track for sure. Can it last? Well there’s an almost progressive rock keyboard intro to “Animal magic” and I’m starting to hope, then it slides into a really nice laidback groove, with a relaxed low-key vocal from Belouis, some nice chiming piano, and there finally is the hook I’ve been searching for since this album began. Again it has The Cars’ handprints all over it, and could easily be a track off “Door to door” or maybe “Heartbeat city”, or even one of Ocasek’s own later solo albums, but it’s a good song and keeps up a level of quality which has definitely risen since the third track kicked in. “Dream girl” is a little more towards the poppy end of the scale, touches of China Crisis in there, but it’s still a good solid track and miles better than anything on the debut. Very Alan Parsons Project-style guitar solo there: Ian Bairnson would be proud. Elements of Mike Rutherford leaking in there too, nice bunch of influences, even if they’re just in my mind. It’s what I hear and that’s all I can report, you know. Generally, I would have worried about a song titled “My body”, had I not been listening to this album through. I would have taken it to be a disco-bop “I’m so sexy” type thing, but now I don’t expect that at all. It is in fact a fairly uptempo almost AOR in places song, with the horns back in full evidence and Belouis channeling Bowie again. Good sharp guitar with more touches of Prince again, quite catchy and I’m actually surprised it wasn’t a hit. “Wind of change” (not the Scorpions ballad) comes up, as you might expect, on slow wind noises on the keys then has a fairly stripped back melody with a hook that any AOR band would give their collective eye teeth for, and a really nice bit of guitar followed by some lush piano. It’s not the greatest track on the album but it’s well up there with the best of the rest. And all too soon we’re coming to the end, with “What I see”, a nice little low-key piece with the vocal very far down in the mix, some very expressive guitar that reminds me of something but for once I can’t say what, and which kind of serves as the second ballad, a very decent closer. TRACKLISTING 1. Let it be with you 2. Stranger than fiction 3. Some girls 4. Passion play 5. Animal magic 6. Dream girl 7. My body 8. Wind of change 9. What I see On the strength of what I’ve heard here I’m actually surprised this wasn’t a big hit for Belouis, a pretty staggering followup to what was in comparison a mediocre debut album, and yet it was “Some people” that got all the plaudits and gave him his chart successes. Maybe it just wasn’t pop or dance enough for the fans who had bought “Imagination” and “Some people”, but I very much prefer this. It shows an artiste maturing very quickly and stepping outside the somewhat confining limits of the dance/electro style of his debut. Very impressive, once you get through the first two tracks, and to be honest, and surprising myself, I’m actually now looking forward to listening to his third, and last album. If I can find it. All I can tell you apart from that is that in 1989 he formed some band called The Big Broadcast and toured with them, and that he supported the likes of Queen, Big Country and ageing rocksters Status Quo at Knebworth, which at the time was one of the UK’s premier rock festivals. His final album then, came in 1993, and I suppose given the fact that it was his last it must not have performed or sold very well for him, though I have no chart statistics to back that up. Certainly, I have not heard any of the tracks as singles and I’m fairly sure he had no hits off it. Ah. No, out of luck. I’ve looked high and low, far and wide, and, just to be sure, in desperation, here and there, but there’s no sign of this album. As I said at the start, the problem with picking obscure music to review is that it’s, well, obscure. Hard to find. I already had to cancel my intended look at Jigsaw because I couldn’t find enough of their music to make it work, and now I can’t get the third album from Belouis Some anywhere. I can’t even buy the damn thing! So I’m destined I guess never to experience what could have been the final masterpiece, or crapfest, of this singer/songwriter from the eighties. I’ll never know whether he went on from the promising development of the second album and carried that into what would be his last, or if he fell back on the pop and disco tropes of his debut. One thing is for certain though: Belouis Some, for all I laughed at him, had some proper talent and it just seems like it was never recognised after his brief flirtation with the charts, but he had a relatively decent run up to about 1989 or so it would seem. Maybe he tried to buck the trend, rather less successfully than Kylie break out of the mould and refashion and reinvent himself, and the world didn’t like it, or more properly didn’t care. Whether he remained in music, moved into production as so many artistes do, or got out of the business altogether is a question that will have to remain a mystery, as there is very little written about him out there on the web. I’m assuming he’s not dead, as Wiki lists him as “is a singer” not “was a singer”, and he apparently had a big following in South Africa for some reason, so that’s good. Maybe he even moved there. But I couldn’t say for sure. Some people, it would seem, don’t merit that kind of coverage. And yet, I find myself, after listening to his second album, more sympathetic towards the man and I do wonder what became of him. I suppose I’ll never know. Ah, but why should you care? Oh, I see: you've managed to get yourself free and legged it. Very inventive. Must remember to use steel chairs next time... ... when I'll be looking at another guy who flared briefly in the eighties and then seemed to die away. Be interesting to see what happened to him. Who am I talking about? Why, Spoiler for Do you dare find out? Can you take the excitement?:
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Before I close up the journals for Christmas, I'd just like to leave you with
Trollheart's Christmas Message I know nobody bothered to collect and reassemble it over the weeks leading up to Christmas, but whether you like it or not, here it is in its entireity, and in all sincerity Trollheart would like to wish all his friends, and all members of Music Banter, a very happy Christmas and a great 2014. Thank you for all your support during the past year and I hope to have much more for you in the coming one. I would like to wish a particularly happy christmas to Vanilla, my leading lady. Peace. http://dailyupdate.ie/wp-content/upl...Christmas2.jpg |
Merry Christmas to you as well and Belouis Some looks like a young Marlon Brando.
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Okay, technically Christmas isn't over for a few more days but I'd like to return to something of normality here, though we still have to get through New Year's Eve tomorrow. Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, and congratulations to those of you who were nominated for and who won awards in last night's first ever Journeys ceremony. Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days but as you could see from the Weekly Update Thread I was very busy compiling the Year in Review and organising the awards. To tie in with the opening of my new thread, "Trollheart's Fortress of Prog", I'd like to kick the last two days of 2013 off with one of my favourite prog bands, and one of their best albums. Contagion --- Arena --- 2003 (Verglas) http://www.progarchives.com/progress...1181772009.jpg "Contagion" is an interesting album, not just because it's so good but because it comes more or less as part of a three-record set, the other two of which are EPs released around the same time as the main album. Some of the material on the companion volumes is just remixed from the tracks on the main album, but there are some tracks on each that don't appear on "Contagion". In particular, "Contagium" is important, as this has three tracks that the main album does not, and two of them are magnificent, while there's one remix also thrown on. The third volume, as it were, has four new tracks and one remix, while the album itself is no slouch, with sixteen. Now, if you leave out the remixes but add up all the tracks on the three recordings you come out with a massive twenty-three songs. Not bad eh? It's a concept album of sorts, dealing I think with the end of the world though I've never been completely sure as it doesn't follow a set plot or storyline, but even on its own "Contagion" is an amazing slice of progressive rock. I've never quite understood the, if not hatred at least apathy towards this band. Sure, they don't reinvent any wheels and they're not out there on the bleeding edge, but they're a whole lot better than some lesser prog rock bands I could mention. Let me put it this way: on hearing Arena I was lovestruck right away, whereas with the more established Spock's Beard I really had to work at the relationship, to the point now where we're certainly talking if not actually sleeping together --- well, the odd dirty weekend, but nothing serious, you understand. In the same way as I slipped gratefully into the embrace of Genesis and Marillion, Mostly Autumn and Shadow Gallery, I resisted the advances of Yes, IQ and Pallas, but Arena as I say, love at first sight. This is the second album with new vocalist Rob Sowden, who would stay with them for two more years and sing on the incredible "Pepper's ghost", before leaving for other pastures and leaving the mike to a new guy. It sees Arena continue in the kind of vein that characterised previous albums such as "Immortal?" and "The visitor", and really begin to up their game. I mean, I liked those albums, a lot, and the ones before them too, but this is the point where Arena really began to spread their wings and show the world of progressive rock what they could do. It opens with the sounds of voices sounding confused and mixed, an effect they would use later on the opening to "Bedlam Fayre" on the "Pepper's ghost" album, then John Mitchell blasts in with a hard and heavy guitar and the redoubtable Mick Pointer pounds away on the skins as "Witch hunt" gets going. Very shortly we hear Rob Sowden and his vocal is a little gruff and raspy, just perfectly fitting the song. Arena would never be described as progressive metal, but this song is one of their hardest and edges close to that subgenre. Great solo from the excellent and talented Mitchell, who's been with them five years at this stage, and still is. The song ends a little abruptly though and slides into the piano ballad "An angel falls", on which Sowden shows the versatility of his vocals, this time soft and gentle but with a hard edge of determination in his singing. Clive Nolan takes centre stage behind the piano for this short little song, before it's back to hard and heavy with the driving "Painted man", Nolan this time on synths and creating a dramatic backdrop for the song, complete with choral vocals and stirring organ. Pointer does a great job on the drums here, matching Mitchell almost note for note while Nolan paints the atmosphere with low muted synthwork, Mitchell racking off another fine solo halfway through. Sowden is again urgent and dramatic as he sings "Why? With poison so strong in our hearts/ And the world torn apart/ Why? When our actions bring nothing but pain/ Can't you see that we're painted the same?" and on a descending riff from Mitchell we're into the instrumental "This way madness lies", where he and Nolan combine with Ian Salmon on bass and Pointer on drums to form a fast and powerful little piece whose second section owes much to Genesis circa "Trick of the tail" before one of the standouts comes in the form of "Spectre at the feast". Built on an almost glockenspiel-like keyboard, ticking like a clock as Sowden sings "There's a spectre at the feast/ Feeding on my soul/ And drinking my hopes away" the song resembles Peter Gabriel's "San Jacinto" in the main melody, Nolan's piano and deep synth leading the song for much of its run. It's the longest track, just over five and a half minutes, which is admittedly not much for a prog rock song, btu then none of these songs are that long, leading to the amount of tracks on teh album. Mitchell's guitar almost slides in unnoticed, then Pointer hits the skins and the song begins to build to a new level as Sowden cries "This brave new world/ Has fallen and decayed/ Are there no heroes/ Just men with feet of clay?" An almost U2-like rhythm possesses the song as it gets heavier, Mitchell's guitar taking a more leading role as it nears its end. The theme of "An angel falls" then returns in "Never ending night", but whereas the former was a solo piano effort, and this begins in that same vein, it soon kicks into something totally different as Mitchell, Pointer and Jowitt explode into the song, turning it into something totally different to "An angel falls", and yet inextricably linked to that song. A real progression in the truest sense of the word, it's a joy to hear, and then in the second minute of the three-plus that it runs for it returns to the original theme before fading out. "Skin game" kicks everything back up to ten, with howling synth and screaming guitars and an anthemic chorus, a great vocal performance from Sowden and a vaguely eastern sense to the melody. Great acapella ending, and the rocking continues in "Salamander", as indeed does the eastern tinge, with an almost "Kashmir"-like tune, marching along like an army crossing the desert under the blazing sun. Some great keyboard work by Clive Nolan on this one. The voices that jabbered across the opening of "Witch hunt" are back for the instrumental "On the box", a showcase for Nolan really, and it's no surprise that of the three instrumentals on the album (yes, there's one more to come) he wrote two and co-wrote the third with Mick Pointer. John Mitchell does throw his penn'orth in though, with another almost effortless solo, as the song runs directly into the dark, brooding "Tsunami", which though it has a sort of walking blues rhythm is a sharp bitter song chronicling the mastery of nature over man as Rob Sowden advises "Ooh there's nowhere to hide now/ Ooh there's nowhere to run!" Nolan's ominous organ work adds a sense of panic to the song, and choral vocals complete the feel, while "Bitter harvest" seems to follow on from this, in a sad little piano ballad with a passionate vocal from Sowden. Mitchell's guitar soon cuts through though and the song becomes a harder, punchier one than it began, and perhaps a testament to one man's refusal to die as Sowden yells "You can take away my crown/ But you'll never bring my spirit down/ I won't give in!" as he wanders through a world devastated by it would seem a natural catastrophe. A soft, whistling keyboard accompanies Sowden as he sings almost Jim Kerr-like on "Belfast child" as "The city of lanterns" runs its short course of just over one minute, devoid of percussion and into the final instrumental, very Genesisesque with squealing, jumping, trumpeting keyboard. At almost four and a half minutes, "Riding the tide" is the longest of the instrumentals here, and it leads into another standout, the ballad "Mea culpa" (I am to blame/ it's my fault) as Sowden sits on a hill and contemplates what has happened to the world he knew, destroyed now by its own hubris. With the sound of an old vinyl record crackling, a solitary organ and Sowden's voice sounding like it's in mono it soon slips into proper stereo as Nolan on piano and keys comes in to accompany him. "Cutting the cards" then has a certain sense of Alan Parsons about it, and a Spanish or Mexican tinge to it also, with a rapid-fire vocal from Sowden as Mitchell this time backs him on what could be classical or Spanish guitar --- Spanish I think --- before percussion joins in and he switches to his electric as the song picks up speed and intensity, Nolan coming in too on the keys. The closer is a song of hope, as "Ascension" speaks of rising from the ashes, though whether this is what actually happens or just a wish I don't know. It's a powerful and uplifting ending though, and certainly gives you a sense that things may work out in the long run. It's a slow song, though I wouldn't class it as a ballad, with its passion and defiance and the thread of determination that runs through it. Built on a truly massive choral vocal from Nolan on the synth and thunderous drums from Pointer, Mitchell's guitar is almost Steve Rotheryesque in parts, Sowden's vocal hopeful and optimistic, a man reaching for the prize he believes is his, or maybe a drowning man reaching for a reed in an effort to save himself as he asks "Are your ready to part the veil/ And write a new beginning to this tale?" Surely a question we might all ask each other, before it's too late? TRACKLISTING 1. Witch hunt 2. An angel falls 3. Painted man 4. This way madness lies 5. Spectre at the feast 6. Never ending night 7. Skin game 8. Salamander 9. On the box 10. Tsunami 11. Bitter harvest 12. The city of lanterns 13. Riding the tide 14. Mea culpa 15. Cutting the cards 16. Ascension Like Ten, Mostly Autumn and a lot of other bands, I owe my interest in, and then love of Arena to the dear departed and sadly missed Allofmp3.com, which was the first website I know of that offered albums at reasonable prices, and allowed me not only to expand my knowledge of bands I was unaware even existed, but helped me to build my digital collection at a fraction of the cost of buying CDs or bowing to Apple. I will always be grateful to them for allowing me sample, and then get into, such artistes. I really don't know of a bad Arena album, and even their most recent, 2011's "The seventh degree of separation", which I wasn't totally blown away with, is likely to be a grower anyway. This album I loved from the start, and there are no, read no, bad tracks on it. The whole thing flows very well and if it's not a concept album --- I'm not sure on that point --- then it's as close to one as they've come since "The Visitor". The musicianship displayed on this album is nothing short of stunning and it's rather surprising to me that Arena are not better known and appreciated than they are, but then I'm getting used to that. In a somewhat crowded space it's becoming increasingly clear that two things mark out the successful bands: longevity and some sort of trademark, neither of which Arena really have, having been only --- only! --- together since the late nineties, which in prog rock terms makes them if not babes in arms, then certainly toddlers. Seems in the world of proggers you have to have been around since the eighties, or preferably the seventies, to be taken seriously. But none of that bothers me. They may never be famous or popular enough to play here, and I'll never get a chance to travel to see them, but they have a new live album out and somewhere I have a DVD of them in performance, which I must root out now that I've relistened to this album. But if you haven't heard Arena yet and you're a fan of class progressive rock with a hard edge, take my advice: this is one contagion you need to contract. |
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As 2013 draws to a close I'd just like to thank you all for dropping by, commenting, or just reading what I've written here. Plenty more to come in the new year, as we expand and build on what we've created here, so it will hopefully be an exciting time. So just time to once again thank you all for your custom before I head out to that big New Year's Eve party --- who am I kidding? I'm not going to any party! Nobody invites me anywhere. Stuck watching the fireworks again on the telly with the sis and the cats ... bloody new year's eve ... same very year ... 2014 my ahhhh you're still there! Sorry didn't see you, thought you'd left! Well wherever you're going tonight and whatever you're doing, enjoy it and remember to drink responsibly, no point in starting the new year off in hospital, or worse! Have a good one and see you all next year! :wave: :beer: And thanks again! |
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Although this song could easily have featured in “Eurovision Hell”, there are enough bad songs to go around after several decades of that competition and I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finding a replacement for it when the time comes to once more dip into that bargain-basement bin of banality. Yes, I do love my alliteration. But since we haven’t looked at this section for a while, and since the other song I was originally going to feature has, through my research, turned out not to be what I thought it was, we’re going to dig into this well-known Eurovision winner and see what the Hook behind it was that made it so popular. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...atulations.jpg Save your kisses for me --- Brotherhood of Man --- 1976 A perfect Eurovision song; bouncy, boppy, inoffensive and using the model which would later be championed by Bucks Fizz, ABBA and others of two men two women, there was never any real doubt that this was going to be the winner that year. Gaining the top marks possible from seven of the countries that voted (I doubt, though I don’t know, that that included us, as back in the seventies and eighties things were still very tense between the UK and Ireland) it kicked its nearest opposition, France, in the head and took the top prize. I was thirteen at the time and can remember the song, though not the others that took part, but I must now imagine that the rest were pretty awful if this won. At its heart it’s an annoying --- very annoying --- and twee love song, as the man heads off to work and advises his sweetheart to wait for him (“Save your kisses for me”) and it’s performed in a very boring, cabaret fashion that borders on making you want to go looking for a shotgun but the Hook comes in the final line, producing the wry smile and knowing wink that surely must have secured them the win. For you see (but of course don’t care) it turns out that the singer is not singing to his girlfriend or wife, but to his daughter, as the closing line tells us: “Won’t you save them for me, even though you’re only three?” With an accompanying wah-wah ending, it’s cheese taken to the nth level, but sure they loved that sort of thing back then, and it sailed to victory. Which only proves once again that a really good Hook can save a song from obscurity, even elevate it to heights it has no business occupying. Without the last line this is just another annoying love song, sung in a sort of New Seekers/Platters style that just makes you grind your teeth, but with the addition of the final line the whole premise changes, and you’re forced to look at the song with new eyes. After you’ve been sick, of course. But that’s what a good Hook can be: a clever little device that makes what could have been (and is) a mediocre song into something memorable and successful. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I can feel my dinner coming back up… |
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Time to once again sort through the pile of free CDs I’ve amassed from buying rock magazines, many or most of which I’ve read but few if any of whose discs I have listened to. It’s been a little while since I first decided to do this, and it was perhaps rather predictably a progressive rock track we looked at. I was impressed, but then I had expected to be, as this had been a song I had already heard, in fact one which stood out head and shoulders among the rest of the tracks on that disc, good as most of them were. This time out I’m looking at a different genre, though still of course one that will be naturally associated with me: AOR. This is the covermount from issue four of “Classic Rock presents AOR”, the newest of the “Classic Rock presents” stable, and the disc contains tracks from bands old and new, ones I know and ones I don’t, with the likes of White Widdow, House of Lords (thought they were prog?) and even my old mate Freddie Frederiksen, about whose album I enthused so warmly in “Bitesize” some time ago. But I want to go for one I know nothing of, and the name that leapt out at me was http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%2.../pics/logo.jpg (To be honest, I have no idea whether that’s the band’s logo, and given that there’s some baseball team called the Charleston Riverdogs, this is the only logo that has come up and is obviously not that of a sports team. Also, the link mentions “Spirit of metal”, so I think we’re onto something here.) Rather amazed to find, when I looked them up to see if there was any information about them that I could impart to you before listening to their offering on this disc, that the legendary Vivian Campbell --- he of Dio, Whitesnake and Def Leppard fame, to say nothing of Sweet Savage, whom I featured in the most recent installment of my NWOBHM story --- was instrumental in getting them signed, and played with them, though the apathy of their label led to their splitting up. Riverdogs had got together in 1990 but up to 2011 had only released three studio albums plus one live one. Essentially they are split up, but get together on occasion and it seems the last time they did they came up with the album “World gone mad”, from which the song I’m looking at is taken and is in fact the title track. World gone mad Riverdogs From the album "World gone mad" (2011) on MelodicRock Records http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MSapNKSrEf...gonemad250.jpg I must say, they don’t look like a rock band on the cover of that album! More like some indie popsters.. But surely with Campbell in the lineup (he returned for this, their third album) there’s bound to be some fretburnin’ fury? Here’s how the band lines out for the album. Riverdogs have gone through some personnel changes over the last twenty years, with one of their number becoming a respected session drummer and another carving out a career for himself as a producer, while Vivian Campbell’s rise to fame has been well documented. But of the band members playing here, it would seem all of the original lineup are present. They are: Rob Lamothe (Lead vocals) Vivian Campbell (Guitars) Mark Danzeisen (Drums) Nick Brophy (Bass) They had a keyboard player at one point but whether or not this album, and this track, features key I don’t know, because this is the first time I’ve ever listened to it, or indeed any Riverdogs material. Let’s redress that right now and press PLAY, see what, if anything, I’ve been missing. Okay well it’s old school rock and you can certainly hear the influence of early Def Leppard here. I can see right away that there’ll be no keyboards here: it’s totally guitar driven in almost a Led Zep way, great work from Mister Campbell, and the vocalist Rob Lamothe is good, his voice really suits the music. The subject matter is a little trite, a tad cliched and I know more than one band has tackled the idea of a world gone mad before, but from the off, though it’s decent rock I struggle to hear where this is any kind of AOR. That genre of music is normally typified and characterised by big blasting guitars, trumpeting keys and piano runs and a general, for the want of a better word, oomphiness about it. I don’t hear that here. Not that the music is bad, just nothing I would personally consider AOR in any shape of form. Oddly enough, the disc that came with the magazine seems to want to play different music (Robin Thicke?) and I wonder if I got a dud, a crossover copy from some other mag that was mislabelled? There’s an address to send it back if it’s defective, and once I confirm this by running it through some other CD players I may return it just to see what happens. That’s what waiting too long to check out the CD does for ya! Anyway I hoped to find it on YouTube but no dice, however Spotify came up trumps, so here we go. Good solo there from Vivian, but of course you’d expect nothing less from the man, and a nice bridge with what sounds like piano, and if it isn’t then it should be, as it would fit in here nicely and give the song something less of a third-rate rock track feel. As it is, I like it okay but it certainly does not blow me away, and I have no particular desire to search any deeper into Riverdogs’ catalogue. Might explain why they never made it, although that could be judging them too harshly, going on the strength of only one track. Still, for their fans’ sake I hope Riverdogs have more bite in them, cos this puppy wouldn’t have a prayer in a fight against the big dogs of AOR. Definitely small time. (Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I can’t find a YouTube of this song, but if you want it the album is on Spotify, which is where I heard the song.) |
Brave --- Marillion --- 1994 (EMI)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...4914102008.jpg Brave in every sense of the word. As the third album with new vocalist Steve Hogarth, this was the band's decision to return to progressive rock, having tried and failed to expand their audience via shorter, more commerically-oriented songs on the previous two albums. Ironically, Marillion's greatest chart success has been and probably always will be "Kayleigh", which just fell short of the number one spot and comes from their other concept album and one steeped in the traditions of classic progressive rock, "Misplaced childhood". This one, however, also ranks quite uniquely as Marillion's darkest and most mature album, with its themes of incest, rape and abuse, and in some ways could perhaps even be seen as a sequel of sorts to that 1985 third album. Written completely as an idea based around a news report about a girl found wandering without any idea of her identity, the storyline fleshes this out and hints at what Steve Hogarth believes could have happened to her. In that sense it's entirely fictional, as it isn't based on any real details, but who knows? He could have come close to the truth in his writing. Whatever the case, the album is bleak and cynical in its themes and does not offer any solutions or excuses for what happens to the girl. There are apparently two endings to the album, one "happy" and one not so happy, but as I've only ever owned the one CD I'm sticking here with mine, which happens to be the more upbeat of the two. The scene is set from the beginning, with the sound of water and a foghorn honking before Mark Kelly's luxuriant keyboards smooth their way in as "Bridge" introduces us to the heroine of the story, leaning over the side and looking down into the water, probably contemplating throwing herself in. A nice little slow piano then accompanies Hogarth's voice as he sings the first few lines then the song moves on into "Living with the big lie", driven on echoey keys and Steve Rothery's crying guitar as Hogarth imagine the girl's early life, initially calm and pleasant until things begin to spiral out of control. The song gets harder under Ian Mosley's hammering drumwork meshing with Kelly's sweeping organ, painting flourishes over the backdrop as we go through the girl's schooldays and she realises "When to kiss and when to kick/ When to keep your head down/ When they're choosing sides". The song slows down then on soft synth and sound effects, with Hogarth's voice softening too for a few moments before Mosley and Rothery bring the tempo right back up and organ from Kelly punches through and Rothery goes off on a superb solo trip that takes the song to its conclusion and into "Runaway", which begins low-key with the sounds of an altercation and slamming door as Kelly's dolorous organ comes in, Rothery following him in and Hogarth relates the tale of the runaway girl recaptured: "Did you cry when they dragged you home/ Put a lock on the door and the telephone?" The track picks up power and intensity, getting angrier and more frustrated as it goes along, Hogarth's voice mirroring the music and the mood. An anguished solo from Rothery coupled with some sterling bass work from Peter Trewavas as the piece reaches its climax as we hear the sad tale of the abused girl: "You'd freeze to death before you'd/ Share a room with them again/ And you'd die before you'd let him /Get his hands on you again!" The longest track on the album is a suite, "Goodbye to all that", which runs for over twelve minutes and is broken into five sections. The first, "Wave", is a short piano piece which will resurface later in "The great escape", while "Mad" is, as you might expect, a frenetic guitar-oriented piece that bounces all over the place, with Mosley bashing away at the skins and Hogarth's voice rising in frustration and confusion as the girl tries to sort out her life, screaming "Tell me I'm mad / Well you're a fine one to decide!" She ends up in a crack house, as "The opium den" begins, where everything quiets down again with droning synth and soft percussion, a kind of sussurating riff running through the keyboard melody and slowly building. This part is mostly instrumental, though Hogarth does mutter some words as the music plays, and it's pretty much a duet between Rothery and Kelly until we hit the fourth movement, "The slide", where Trewavas takes over with a slow, doomy bassline and some sound effects are thrown in, Rothery screeching along the guitar strings to make wailing noises, before slow percussion and piano slips in. A quite atmospheric piece, it builds up to something of a crescendo where Rothery's guitar just screams out the frustration and confusion the girl must be feeling. From here it's piano and vocal, as Hogarth comes back in to advise the police that "You think you got here/ Just in time/ But you're twenty years too late." A big thundering instrumetnal part brings "Standing in the swing" to a close, finishes the suite and piles directly into the heavy rock "Hard as love", with some great guitar and thumping percussion, Hogarth's voice now defiant and angry as it appears the girl is now on the streets and selling her body. Fine organ work from Kelly here too. It stops in the middle and goes all quiet on the back of Rothery's tingling guitar, building back up as Hogarth squeezes every ounce of passion he can out of his voice for the big finish. We finally have a ballad after all that, as Kelly opts for a simple piano for "Hollow man", the vocal so low from Hogarth that it's at times almost inaudible as he considers the weaknesses of people. It sounds like there's violin on this, but as none is credited (and it's not normally an instrument utilised by Marillion) I'll have to assume it's made on the synth. Big guitar intro then to the marching "Alone again in the lap of luxury", with chiming guitar and measured drumming and like much of the material on this album it builds up from a slow beginning into something of a frantic ending, mostly thanks to Steve Rothery's fretwork. It seems to depict the girl's fantasy of what her life could have been, instead of how it turned out: "This is a photograph of who I could be" and ends on a little coda which they call "Now wash your hands", which has a clever little line as its only lyric: "You give up hope/ You settle down/ With your favourite soap/ Now wash your hands." What I love about this is the double meaning: the idea of the wife deciding she can do nothing about her husband's appetites and leaving him to it while she turns up the TV to drown out her daughter/step-daughter's cries for help, and the washing of the hands being both related to soap, as is the telly programme, as well as absolving yourself of all responsibility. The imagery is stark and very real, and extremely effective. Another hard rocking track is next, with the sound of possibly train wheels or maybe water, I'm not sure what it's meant to be, but "Paper lies" powers along nicely with a strong vocal and driving drumbeat. This ends on an atmospheric twist which slips seamlessly into the title track, carried on droning synthesiser with a sort of horn sound behind it, kind of like an accordion. It slows everything down, with what sounds this time like uileann pipes giving the song a very celtic feel. It's quite ambient really with a fine restrained vocal from Steve Hogarth, amd brings us into what I consider the standout of the album. "The great escape" is broken into two parts, the first, called "The last of you", recalls some of the themes from "Goodbye to all that", with a gentle piano opening accompanying Hogarth's vocal before percussion and guitar break in, the pace a slow, stately, almost funereal one, until about two minutes in when it soars into a powerful passionate piano and keyboard melody, Hogarth's voice angry and disbelieving as the girl snarls "Just when I thought I'd seen/ The last of you/ You come here/ Scratchin' at my door" and demands an apology, an explanation for what was done to her, and asks "Why did you hurt the very one/ You should have protected?" Part two then is "Fallin' from the moon", built on another piano melody and chiming guitar with slow, measured drumming as Hogarth remarks "A bridge is not a high place .../ When you've fallen from the moon." Wonderful evocative guitar solo to close and then we hear the sounds of water again as we end up back where we began, before "Made again" finally brings us a happy ending, with an acoustic guitar opening, very simple and clean, Hogarth singing softly against this, eyes wide with new wonder at the world. The band comes in to accompany him then as the song takes on a jaunty, upbeat tone as the album comes to an end. TRACKLISTING 1. Bridge 2. Living with the big lie 3. Runaway 4. Goodbye to all that (i) Wave (ii) Mad (iii) The opium den (iv) The slide (v) Standing in the swing 5. Hard as love 6. The hollow man 7. Alone again in the lap of luxury 8. Paper lies 9. Brave 10. The great escape (i) The last of you (ii) Fallin' from the moon 11. Made again After "Script for a jester's tear", this is far and away my favourite Marillion album. After two albums of more or less basic rock on "Season's end" and "Holidays in Eden", Marillion returned to what they did best and revisited the painful world of "Misplaced childhood", to take a more mature and experienced look at youth and growing up, and what can befall the most innocent through no fault of their own. The title is appropriate in two ways: the heroine of the story is brave in that she gets away from her abusive father and useless mother, and tries to make a life for herself (although in the alternate ending to the album she jumps from the bridge and drowns) and it was also a very brave and bold decision for the band to take, knowing they were losing touch with their fans and wishing to return to their progressive rock roots, but still tackling a very sensitive and in many ways taboo subject. It didn't pay off for them commercially, as though singles were taken from the album this is not one that lends itself to hits, and nor were there any. It did reasonably well in the album charts, getting into the top ten but behind the previous two albums and a long way off the band's best-ever showing of a number one slot for "Misplaced childhood". But critically the album was acclaimed and it has gone down as one of the fan favourites. You could almost hear Fish singing this, though profuse credit must be given to Steve Hogarth, who conceptualised the whole thing and wrote almost all of the lyrics alone. After this, perhaps rather bizarrely, Marillion would revert to the mostly straight rock they had been moving away from, with an attendant slide down the charts, something the band have never recovered from. But charts are for pop songs, and while it's nice to see your favourite band there, Marillion have always been more about the music and the fans, two things that have ensured they are still popular as ever, over thirty years since they released their debut. They may have changed their format slightly, but with albums like "Marbles" and last year's triumphant "Sounds that can't be made" I feel they're slowly edging back to the progressive rock format they helped champion and revive in the 1980s. But it's unlikely they'll ever record an album like this again. Unique, dark, mature, controversial. But above all, brave. |
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Time to shake that shaker and let the chips fall where they may, as we hit up another unknown (to me) album and see what we get. There will be absolutely no prizes for guessing my motivation in choosing this one --- I love an interesting title or band name, and you don’t get a whole lot more interesting than a band called Break My Fucking Sky, now do you? Of course, it’s virtually impossible to get any information on them, so I’m shooting totally in the dark here, but then, that’s what this section is all about, isn’t it? If I had to guess (and I’d probably be wrong) I would say this is a thrash/death metal band, just going from the name, but I really have no clue. That could be a massive pink salmon, sorry, red herring, and the band could be a folk indie rock outfit for all I know. Well, that’s probably not too likely, but a name doesn’t always tell the full story. Unfortunately I can find nothing about them on El Webbo, other than YouTube videos and the odd place that sells their album, so I guess we’ll just have to let the music do the talking. Final breath --- Break my Fucking sky --- 2013 (?) http://i46.fastpic.ru/thumb/2013/070...d4bae00cc.jpeg First impressions: Totally breathtaking opening with beautiful soft acoustic piano then deep synthesiser in an almost orchestral vein --- could be an orchestra to be honest, I have no information at all about this album as I say. Nothing about the players, their discography, their style. This could be their debut for all I know. One thing I do know is I, rather appropriately, fucking love this! Soft, ambient, emotional, possibly (probably) instrumental. I find myself wondering though if I’m being setup for a fall, as I would almost swear this is metal, and may explode, if not in this track then in the next, shattering the lovely feeling I have here. Well we’ll see. Hmm. Second track is also piano-led, soft and instrumental with some sound effects loops thrown in. Likes: The gorgeous atmospheric instrumental opening, giving me hope this may be an amazing discovery. It looks like it goes on like that too. Dislikes: Nothing so far. And coming back at the end of the album, still nothing. Development of album: Seems like it may all be instrumental. Piano certainly appears to be the main instrument, the lynchpin around which the rest of the music swings, the heart of the album. Some interesting drum loops almost give it a feel of slower hip-hop at times, and some really nice orchestral synth lays down further layers of beauty on this lush soundscape. Beautiful piece of evocative guitar in the gorgeous if grammatically-incorrect “So silently has become in my world without you”, then the last few moments of “Stop the time” are the first where the music gets anyway fast, dropping back to gentle ambience for “Your personal god”, with what sounds like violins. After all the soft piano tracks it’s almost a shock to hear what sounds pretty close to electronic pop in “You’re living this moment with me” but it goes back to the slow atmospherics for much of the rest of the album, ending on a storming track just shy of six minutes which brings in sort of techno influences into the mix. Overall sound: Ambient, laidback, post-rock I guess, with piano the main instrument carrying the melodies. Reminds me of: Hard to say really. So far, the closest I would come is the album from Dreamfire that I reviewed in “Bitesize” and maybe Anthony Phillips and Andrew Skeet’s “Seventh Heaven”. Favourite track(s): “Final breath”, “Aquarius”, “Moon”, “So silently has become in my world without you” … pretty much everything really. Least favourite track(s): Not a one. Overall effect on me: Surprise mostly, but good surprise. As I said, I had no idea at all what to expect, and the fact that this turned out to be an instrumental album, and such a good one, knocked me a little for six. There were no nasty revelations, no sudden changes in the music and no growly vocals. Well, no vocals at all. I’m a little mystified as to the title of the band/project though, considering it’s all pretty laidback instrumental stuff. It kind of precludes any airplay. Then again, instrumental music doesn’t get much of that. Very impressed though, so that’s two for three so far. Wish I knew more about Break my Fucking sky though: I have a sneaking suspicion this could be one guy. Or girl. But there’s no way to confirm or disprove that, which is a pity. TRACKLISTING 1. Final breath 2. Aquarius 3. Moon 4. So silently has become in my world without you 5. Stop the time 6. Your personal god 7. Destruam et aedificabo 8. Do not forget me 9. Embrace my night 10. Fire all over 11. You’re living this moment with me 12. Second chance 13. Sense of touch 14. The last minutes of stars 15. Will you save me So, the rating then. Well, I definitely enjoyed this album, a whole lot more than I had realistically expected to, but how does that translate into dice ratings? Die One: Loved this album in every way, so it’s getting a solid six. Early to be giving sixes yes I know, but I was really impressed by this. http://www.trollheart.com/dice6.png Die Two: How familiar was I with the genre? Well, that’s an open question, because when I started the album I had no idea what genre it was. So given that I’m relatively familiar with ambient/instrumental music, but also taking into account that I was flying in here blind, I’m going for a midpoint score and awarding this http://www.trollheart.com/dice3.png So a total dice roll then of http://www.trollheart.com/dicerollresult.png http://www.trollheart.com/dice6.pnghttp://www.trollheart.com/dice3.png (Highest score yet…) :thumb: |
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When most people think of Hazel O’Connor these days this is in fact the song that comes to mind, but there was a time when she was counted with the “bad girls” of rock, along with the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Lene Lovich and Toyah Wilcox. Starring in the punk movie “Breaking glass” and with a hit on her hands in the shape of “Eighth Day”, she was claiming her place as another of the punk queens of England. http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...king_Glass.jpg "Will you" Hazel O’Connor 1981 from the album “Breaking glass” (original soundtrack) But then she released this ballad, and is forever now linked with the song, which appears on love albums periodically. It’s a slightly bitter tale of two lovers, I believe, sitting after another boring day comes to a close, the same as their relationship it seems is doing. Hazel speaks to her lover, not in words but in her thoughts, watching what he does --- simple, ordinary tasks --- ”You drink your coffee and I sip my tea” --- while the tiniest hope of reconciliation or even romance hangs in the air like the Sword of Damocles. Hazel realises the chances are that nothing will happen, but fantasises in her mind what might be: ”Then we touch/ Oh it’s too much/ This moment I have waited for a long long time/ A shiver, makes me quiver” It’s all fantasy though, and she watches as her lover ignores her and wonders if he will ”Just politely say goodnight?” The song is a beautiful one and Hazel’s vocal, brittle and cracking with repressed anger and recrimination, but also the desperation of someone who just wants to be loved, even once, is powerful. It opens on simple guitar with attendant piano coming in in a sort of staccato fashion, the first blast of sax belting in as the second verse begins. The percussion cuts in properly now, the piano taking a little more of the melody. Sax moans in counterpoint, then squeals before the bridge, as synthesised strings are added to the melody. The best part however comes in the extended ending, with a long, mournful sax solo that comes in on the back of slow, measured drumming and takes the whole thing to a new level. A song quite rightly and deservedly reckoned one of the alltime classic love ballads, and one which never does, and never will, grow old. You drink your coffee and I sip my tea, And we're sitting here, playing so cool thinking "What will be, will be." But it's getting kinda late now. I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now? Or will you just politely say "Goodnight"? I move a little closer to you, not knowing quite what to do and I'm feeling all fingers and thumbs: I spill my tea --- oh silly me! But it's getting kinda late now. I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now? Or will you just politely say "Goodnight"? And then we touch; much too much. This moment has been waiting for a long, long time. It makes me shiver, makes me quiver: This moment I am so unsure; This moment I have waited for: Well is it something you've been waiting for? Waiting for too? Take off your eyes, bare your soul. Gather me to you and make me whole. Tell me your secrets, sing me the song. Sing it to me in the silent tongue. But it's getting kinda late now. I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now? Or will you just politely say "Goodnight"? |
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Dark angel --- The Reasoning --- 2008 (Comet)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...9212492008.jpg This band have an impressive pedigree, with ex-members of both Magenta and Karnataka in the band, and the mighty Steve Rothery of Marillion legend guesting on their first album. This is their second, and it's the first time I've heard from them. The Reasoning have only been together since 2005, but to date have released five albums --- well, four, if you consider one was an acoustic offering --- with their last hitting the shelves last year. They are somewhat unique in that they employ no less than three vocalists (take that, Von Hertzen Brothers!) and so are able to create some mesmeric vocal harmonies on the music they produce. The album opens on quite an It Bites style keyboard and guitar melody as the title tracks kicks it off, but then harder guitars and orchestral keyboards amp up the drama, with some nice piano sprinkled across the tune. This settles down into a nice acoustic guitar piece, very early Marillion indeed, which is then taken up by electric guitar, and it's two minutes into the track before we hear any vocals, the first coming from Rachel Cohen, joined then by one of the guys, either guitarist Dylan Thompson or keyboard man Gareth Jones, the overall sound very pleasing on the ears. Strangely enough, Rachel's voice reminds me of Leslie Dowdall from Irish band In Tua Nua, same sort of warm restrained quality that can surely break out in anger or passion when required. Nice almost acapella vocal harmony to finish and we're into "Sharp sea". Not surprisingly this has some nice rolling waves, thunder and wind sound effects before it gets going, and in fairness they take up almost a minute of the seven and a half run before low synth comes in and then hard guitar from Thompson blasts across the melody. Again it's over two minutes before Rachel's voice enters the fray, and again it's on the back of laidback acoustic guitar. Other vocals join and supplement hers, while the guitar gets tougher and the percussion ramps up. There's some lovely wailing keyboard which reminds me of Arena at their best and some fine guitar from Thompson with a great little solo, quite Gilmouresque. The vocal harmonies work particularly well here. A lovely solitary guitar chord ushers in "How far to fall" and this appears to be the first ballad. Interestingly, it's one of the guys who takes vocal duties here, the song itself swaying along on a sort of bluesy/waltzy rhythm with some snarling guitar that doesn't seem at all out of place. It kicks up the tempo about halfway through, leading to an excellent keyboard solo from Gareth Jones and some fine piano too, then it relapses back into ballad territory and takes us into "Serenity", a short, less than two minute workout on acoustic guitar and mandolin for Dylan Thompson, adding in some nice piano licks and running to some sort of backing track I can't quite make out, some report or something. I think it may be NASA, something to do with the moon? Not sure. Anyway it's a nice little almost-instrumental and goes into "Call me God?", which is a heavier, more dramatic piece than anything since the opener, with snarling keyboards and chiming guitar then breaking into an almost heavy metal chugalong as we hear the first and perhaps only vocals from Gareth Jones, who is one hell of a good singer himself. Great choral vocals backing a really rocking track with a lot of power and energy and bringing in Rachel on the second verse where she then harmonises with Gareth. "In the future" then seems to be another ballad, though from what I've heard of this band the song could easily change direction. It's Dylan back on vocals with Gareth harmonising. Lovely chingly guitar and what surely must be mellotron? Sort of stayed the same but I don't think I'd class it as a ballad, as such. Some very neoclassical piano fooled me into thinking "Absolute zero" was one, but I don't feel it going that way, more mid-paced really, and with Dylan this time harmonising with Rachel and I think Gareth. Some lovely synth work and a rising guitar line with a beautiful little almost Spanish guitar solo, though unfortunately it doesn't last long. Boo. "Breaking the fourth wall" though does seem to be heading down the ballad road, with a lovely duet between Rachel and Dylan, gorgeous piano and some really strong guitar, but the main strength of this song is the powerful double harmony of the two leads. One of the best tracks on the album for me. The closer then is the epic, over nine minutes and it starts on chimy, almost ominous piano and ticking percussion, with slightly heavier piano joining the melody and some sound effects. Heavy guitar then blows everything away as the drums really kick in, and "A musing dream" gets started. Upbeat keyboards and staccato drumming with again over two minutes before the vocals come in. It's Dylan Thompson with little touches from Rachel, the tempo of the song increasing and settling into an upbeat tone with guitar and squealy keys leading the melody. Rachel takes over the main vocal about six minutes in, on the back of rather nice acoustic guitar and some trumpeting low keyboard from Gareth, what could be harmonica and then a soaring laidback little guitar solo as the song approaches its end. Well into the seventh minute then it picks up again and gets faster, the guitar again leading the attack alongside some dextrous keyboard work from Gareth Jones. There's a good vocal harmony to end but then it rather abruptly and disappointingly just comes to an end, which I feel weighs against it, and sadly colours my final impression of the whole album. TRACKLISTING 1. Dark angel 2. Sharp sea 3. How far to fall 4. Serenity 5. Call me God? 6. In the future 7. Absolute zero 8. Breaking the fourth wall 9. A musing dream If The Reasoning remind me of any other band it's Touchstone, and I was very impressed by them. They haven't been around too long in relative terms, but what they lack in longevity they've more than made up for in output. Having heard this album I'm more than ready to hear more of their material, and believe they could be only a short step away from taking the crown as one of the best new prog rock artistes of the last five or so years. Their multi-vocal approach definitely gives them an edge, and unlike many other bands of this ilk (Touchstone included) they don't seem to make the possible mistake --- at least, on this album --- of trying to write songs that are too long and complicated, with "A musing dream" a mere (!) nine minutes and change. Playing to their strengths: always a good way for a band to ensure they go far. And on the basis of this album, I see the future for The Reasoning being quite bright indeed, and expect they will in fact go far. |
Generations --- Journey --- 2005 (Sanctuary)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...1117112009.jpg The second and last album to feature "Steve Number Two", Generations is a fine Journey album that suffers from a few bad tracks but overall is one of the best I've heard. It also is the one which affords every bandmember a chance to sing, though as usual the Schon/Cain songwriting partnership rules the roost, apart from two songs which Steve Augeri writes. The Perry fanboys will tell you it didn't sound the same, but for my money Augeri was almost a clone of the original vocalist to the point where I found it hard to remember it wasn't Perry singing. But then, maybe that's just me. Nevertheless of the later Journey albums I found this to be one of the best, and the release of "Eclipse" in 2011 has not changed that view. You couldn't really have a better start than "Faith in the heartland", with swirling synth from Cain and then slowly rising guitar courtesy of Schon before he really breaks through and percussion from Deen Castronovo powers in with a a big yell from Augeri and a solo from Neal as the song takes off. A big punchy rocker, it's far removed from the "limp" ballads Journey have sometimes become unfairly typecast as producing, although I like those ballads, which is why I rate "Arrival" as my alltime favourite Journey album. Stirring vocal harmonies and chugging guitar make this song a great introduction to a really good album. Things keep rocking then with "The place in your heart", with great guitar and thundering drums, a real sense of urgency and desperation in it. A great screaming solo from Neal Schon too. We hear Deen Castronovo for the first time singing on "A better life", and to be fair he's not half bad: maybe they should let him sing more. It's more a mid-paced song than the previous two, and then Jonathan Cain tries his hand in what is more or less the title track, the burning "Every generation". With a nearly breathless vocal and sliding guitars, solid percussion and later some really rock-and-roll piano from the man, it's a great title track with a message that reaches out across the years and down into history. It's Steve Augeri's turn to try his hand at songwriting now, and "Butterfly" is a nice little piano ballad, though in fairness it's nothing the Cain/Schon combination could not have written between them, or even separately. Still, a good first effort, and his second isn't bad either. It follows directly on the heels of this, and though he's joined in the writing by Tommy De Rossi it's a brilliant little rocker, full of drama and energy with a great keyboard riff from Cain running through it. Maybe a little repetitive if I'm honest but otherwise very impressive. Cain shows us how it's done next with one of his many ballads, and "Knowing that you love me" has that laidback lazy guitar Neal Schon can get such a handle on, with a swaying waltzy rhythm and one of those choruses with more hooks than a fishing tackle box, stuffed with emotion and heartfelt feeling. I do admit, that when Journey shine the brightest is in their carefully crafted ballads, and this is up with the best of them. Back rocking then with the anti-war "Out of harm's way", a small sense of the classic "Separate ways (Worlds apart)" to some degree, but it has great drama and energy in it. Sadly this is where the album begins to slide badly, as the next three tracks are I feel very much below par, kicking off with "In self-defense", where even the added writing talents of alumnus Steve Perry can't save this song. The vocals of Neal Schon certainly don't help; honestly, it's like something Motorhead or Tank would write. Not quite as bad is "Better together", but with a disjointed guitar performance from Schon it just comes across as a cross between Kiss and Bon Jovi. That leaves us with the crapweed in the bouquet, the truly awful "Gone crazy", on which you'd have to think Journey have done just that. WIth, I should add, Ross Vallory on vocals. He really should stick to playing the bass. What is it about this album? Was there an unspoken agreement that everyone would get a turn singing? I mean, I've heard Tico Torres sing for Bon Jovi and he's bad, but Vallory is pretty damn close to that bad. The song's also terrible, so nothing much to report here. Good guitar work from Schon but it's not my bag at all. It's all over the place and just not the sort of thing I expect from these guys. At least the album ends well though, on a lovely soft dreamy ballad. "Beyond the clouds" does its best to recover the earlier quality that shines through this album and mostly succeeds. It's just a pity that not only are there three bad tracks on it, but Journey have seen fit to group them together, which only serves to thrust their poor quality into the light, rather than allow them pass by unremarked. TRACKLISTING 1. Faith in the heartland 2. The place in your heart 3. A better life 4. Every generation 5, Butterfly (She flies alone) 6. Believe 7. Knowing that you love me 8. Out of harm's way 9. In self-defense 10. Better together 11. Gone crazy 12. Beyond the clouds Despite the rough bunch near the end, this is still a very strong Journey album, and it's an interesting experiment, to allow everybody sing, though I doubt they allowed Ross Vallory another turn! After this Steve Augeri cried off with a throat infection and had to be replaced on Journey's world tour, whereafter he was replaced by Arnel Pineda, and a new chapter began in the band's history. For my money though, this was the last truly great Journey album, despite the unkind remarks above. It followed on directly from my alltime favourite (which surprises many people) "Arrival" and was in its turn followed by "Revelation", the first to feature the new singer and later by "Eclipse", much praised but not by me. In many ways, an era ended with the departure of Steve Augeri, just as it did with his predecessor, and personally I feel Journey lost something with the exit of both vocalists. Pineda has proved a capable replacement, but I've just always had this feeling that Journey would never be the same without either of the Steves, and for me, this is where the journey, to a great extent, ended. |
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incorporating http://www.trollheart.com/morethanwords.jpg Well, it’s a new year and time to try new things, eh? The first time I’ve ever done this, merging two sections, but I couldn’t decide which this album should go under, so in the end I thought why not do both, as it fits the one as well as it does the other? http://mimo.recordingconnection.com/...ifornia-37.jpg Most people here will laugh at the idea of listening to Train. I thought at first that was just a sense of elitism, maybe ignorance, and truth to tell I enjoyed their “Save me San Francisco” album. But this one is a whole different kettle of fish. I was so surprised by how poor and generic it is that for a moment I had to check to make sure I hadn’t thrown on an album by The Script or Imagine Dragons by accident. It’s so far removed from SMSF that it really doesn’t seem possible that this could be the same band. And there’s only three years between them! Anyway, we’ll go with the first part and get that out of the way. So what is good about this album? Well, basically two songs: The hilarious “50 ways to say goodbye”, which really does sound like something Robbie Williams would write Spoiler for 50 ways to say goodbye:
and the touching and rather surprising “When the fog rolls in” Spoiler for When the fog rolls in:
Other than that it’s pretty lowgrade material, like the opener “This’ll be my year” Spoiler for This'll be my year:
The very annoying “Drive by” Spoiler for Drive by:
The total rip-off of Madonna’s “La isla bonita” that goes under the title of “Mermaid” Spoiler for Mermaid:
not to mention the title track, which somehow hip-hops up “Hotel California”. Eh??? Spoiler for California 37:
And that’s more or less the way it goes. It’s not the worst album I’ve ever heard but compared to “Save me San Francisco” it’s a big big disappointment. But as I say, there are two quite excellent tracks on it, notable for two very different reasons, and I’m now going to explore these in the second part of this feature, as I look deeply into the lyric on both songs. 50 ways to say goodbye (Train) from "California 37", 2012 Music and Lyrics by Pat Monahan, Espen Lind and Amund Bjorklund This is just a fun song, and in some ways it’s not so unique but it does evoke that awkward moment when someone meets you who doesn’t know you’ve broken up with your girl asks where is she and you struggle for an answer that won’t paint you in a bad light. The singer here decides to go with the story that his girlfriend died, and comes up with a laundry list of possibilities , each funnier and more unbelievable than the last. I mean, come on: listen to this. “She dried up in the desert/ Drowned in a hot tub /Danced to death at an east side night club..” No it’s not the most insightful songwriting ever committed to paper, but some of the excuses offered just have to make you smile --- stop taking notes! Nobody is going to believe any of these! Well, maybe that one… ”My heart is paralyzed, My head was oversized, I'll take the high road like I should. You said it's meant to be, That it's not you, it's me: You're leaving now for my own good. That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say She went down in an airplane Fried getting suntanned. Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand. Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes! She met a shark under water, Fell and no one caught her. I returned everything I ever bought her. Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies And ways to say you died. My pride still feels the sting; You were my everything. Some day I'll find a love like yours (a love like yours). She'll think I'm Superman, Not super minivan: How could you leave on Yom Kippur? That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say She was caught in a mudslide Eaten by a lion. Got run over by a crappy purple Scion. Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes! She dried up in the desert, Drowned in a hot tub, Danced to death at an east side night club. Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies And ways to say you died. I wanna live a thousand lives with you. I wanna be the one you're dying to love... But you don't want to. That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say She went down in an airplane, Fried getting suntanned. Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand. Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes! She met a shark under water, Fell and no one caught her. I returned everything I ever bought her. Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies. She was caught in a mudslide, Eaten by a lion. Got run over by a crappy purple Scion. Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes! She dried up in the desert, Drowned in a hot tub, Danced to death at an east side night club. Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies And ways to say you died.” And while that’s pretty damn funny, if perhaps slightly morbid, the other decent song on the album is a heartfelt and moving love song that pays tribute to what it’s like to break up a relationship. When the fog rolls in (Train) from "California 37", 2012 Music and Lyrics by Pat Monahan and Gregg Wattenberg This song says everything we dread about the ending of a relationship. It’s all the little things --- will she be there when I stop by to pick up my things or can I get away without having to talk to her? Will there be another man? Am I strong enough not to fold and go back to her? Some great and insightful lines: ”Friends become lovers/ And lovers lose friends” really encapsulates that moment of fear when you wonder if it’s worth taking the extra step and falling in love --- or admitting your love for --- your friend. Will it change the way she sees you? Of course it will. Will it lead to a better, or a worse relationship and when or if it ends, will you, can you still be friends? ”In through the kitchen/Where we used to laugh;/ Smells of your cooking: /Sounds of the past.” That’s a fantastic little line there. The little things you’ll remember when the relationship is over, the simple, everyday things you’ll miss. The song also looks, rather atypically, and very briefly, at both sides of the story: ”Ooh ooh ooh, I'm losing you/ Ooh ooh ooh, you're losing me too.” And then the final moment, when there’s no more thinking about the past or putting it off: ”I take a deep breath with my hand on the door /Afraid 'cause I'm not gonna see you anymore.” A truly lovely song with one of the best lyrics I’ve heard in a very long time. And the more surprising, given that it comes amid such other generic trash on what is a pretty low-par and very disappointing album. Driving over the bridge to give you my keys I know you don't love me, I know it ain't easy. Friends become lovers And lovers lose friends: That's when the fog rolls in. Ooh ooh ooh, I'm losing you. Ooh ooh ooh, you're losing me, too. In through the kitchen Where we used to laugh; Smells of your cooking: Sounds of the past. Somehow we got older, The air just got colder: That's when the fog rolls in. Ooh ooh ooh, I'm losing you. Ooh ooh ooh, you're losing me too. So much for sewing up. So this is growing up. Everything's going up for sale. The fog kept on rolling in, Time came to sink or swim: They say it's better to try and fail And we tried like hell. I take a deep breath with my hand on the door, Afraid 'cause I'm not gonna see you anymore. These were our tender years, this was our street: All of our stoplights and all our concrete. Now it's all somebody else's to take Until the fog rolls in. Ooh ooh ooh and now we're through. |
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Nothing lasts forever. Footballers retire, film stars realise the party is over and it's time to go, and authors write their last book. So too with bands. No band will ever stay on the road or in the studio till they die. At some point they realise that the moment has arrived to call time and wind things up. Sometimes this is a conscious, unanimous decision, as in the examples of REM and a-ha --- going out, as the former noted on their final live farewell album, on a high note, and sometimes it's circumstances making it impossible for the band to continue, whether through the passing of members, such as Queen and Lizzy (don't talk to me about Paul Rodgers!) or a general dissatisfaction among the band, a point where they just decide that's it, time to go. Often this can lead to some pretty startling revelations, if you know where to look, both in the studio and onstage, as years or even decades of being together and perhaps putting up with one another's foibles and idiosyncrasies come to a head, tempers fray and barriers long erected and solid come crashing down. In the last moments before they metaphorically or literally leave the stage, a whole lot can be read into the final product of a band who have been together for a long time. In this section I'm going to be looking at the point where certain bands ended their career, whether deliberately or of necessity, or for any other reason. Although most bands do and did perform final gigs after announcing their disbanding, I will be tending to shy from using any last live albums in this feature. Why? Because on stage a band can marshall all their greatest hits, put on one last great show and really make the final days, weeks or months seem like they're turning back the clock. They can forget their differences and play as one unit, and feed off the energy, response and adoration of their fans. They're on home territory, and masters of their own domain. But in the studio, where they're perhaps crafting an album they may not want to do, have any interest in, or even wish they weren't being forced to do, that's when the cracks begin to show. When there's nowhere to hide and all you have is the other people in the band and the sound engineers and producers, day in day out, trying things and recording and re-recording, having arguments and throwing tantrums until the damn thing is finally done, that's when you can really see the effects of the strain of finally bidding goodbye to the life these people have lived for, in some cases, three or four decades. Whether that pressure comes through or not in the final output --- or indeed, whether it even exists or not --- is probably the final test of and tribute to the band's professionalism. I'd like to kick this new section off by looking at the last album to be released by my alltime favourite band, and the effect it had on them, their fans, and their legacy, as well as the reasons leading up to it that resulted in the final salvo being fired by a band who had held sway over the realms of progressive rock for nigh-on forty years. Calling all stations --- Genesis --- 1997 (Virgin) http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/115227.gif The album that spelled the end for Genesis, intoducing a new frontman and vocalist. But was it too little too late? After Phil Collins' departure the previous year, the remaining two members of the band auditioned many replacements for his job as vocalist. There seemed little or no possibility that either of them would take up those duties themselves, as Collins had on the exit of Peter Gabriel in the mid-seventies. Neither Tony Banks nor Mike Rutherford had ever sang on any Genesis albums, other than backup, and even with solo careers each of them had opted to draft in vocalists to interpret their music, so whether it is just that they have terrible or unsuited singing voices, or they don't wish to be front and centre, neither of these legends wished to be the new Genesis singer. So they ended up settling on ex-Stiltskin man Ray Wilson. Perhaps an odd choice: though Stiltskin had had a number one hit single nobody outside of their genre would have really been aware of them, and certainly nobody within the progressive rock circle. But perhaps it was time for a fresh approach? Genesis had after all been accused of turning stale and safe, though their last album had been in my opinion anything but. Nevertheless it is a fact that they had strayed far from their signature sound and were, like pretenders to their throne Marillion, moving further away from the progressive rock that had made their name and into more commercial, soft-rock territory. Perhaps an angry young man could change all that? I had my doubts, like everyone. It wasn't too much of a stretch when Collins took over --- after all, he had already been part of the band. But this was a newcomer, and more, someone I didn't know. Ray who? But even at that, it was a new Genesis album, after six years of waiting and wondering and hoping, so I was prepared to give it a chance. I was one of those, after all, who accepted Steve Hogarth into Marillion after Fish left, and John Payne into Asia. Never prejudge, say I, till you've at least given the guy a chance. Maybe this would turn out to be just what Genesis needed, and Wilson could lead them if not back to the glory days then at least on to better things? Maybe it was, after all, time to shake things up in a band who had seen no major changes since 1977, when Steve Hackett left to pursue his own solo career? And you know, it starts off very promising, with a big snarling guitar from Mike Rutherford, thumping drums and then the familiar low keys of Tony Banks, and a few moments later we get to hear the voice of the "new boy". To my mind, Ray Wilson reminded me of Paul Carrack on the Mike and the Mechanics albums, which was not a bad thing. It's a slowburner, the title track, with a lot of drama and a certain ominous flavour to it, and retaining much of the expected Genesis sound. Not a pop song, that's for sure. Very expressive, very effective and Wilson seems to be up to the job without a doubt. Well, maybe this won't be so bad. Little drum-pads like we heard on the big hit "Mama" off the self-titled 1983 album. Great drumwork from Nick D'Virgilio, he of Spock's Beard, and a slick little guitar solo from Mike, just in case we forgot how good he is on the frets. So I'm starting to think this might work, but then we get "Congo". Oh dear! It's as if Tony and Mike decided to go the Peter Gabriel route, but with nothing of the sensitivity or knowledge of African music that their erstwhile bandmate has. This is like someone just said "Let's write an African-sounding record. How do we do that? Oh, some congo drums, some chants, some marimbas, you know." Yeah, I know. And this is what resulted. Dear god, the difference between this and the opener! I wouldn't even expect to hear this on the fourth or fifth Mike and the Mechanics album, and I had long lost interest in them by then. Terrible: even Rutherford's growling guitar can't pull this back on track. And this was what they chose to release as a single from the album! Hoisted on your own petard, or what? But there's a tantalising sense of the album this could have been, as some of the tracks really up the quality, like "Shipwrecked", up next, with a lovely laidback guitar and soft rolling piano, a real ballad although again I would have to say more in the Mike and the Mechanics mould than what you would expect to hear from Genesis. It does however get the nasty taste of "Congo" out of the mouth, with its opening effect of a radio being tuned then the acoustic guitar opening before Banks' solid keys join the melody and it drifts along on a nice mid-paced rhythm. Wilson's vocal definitely suits this song, much more than it did the previous in my opinion. This was also a single, and I can understand why, though it would have reinforced in many people's minds the view that Genesis were becoming more AOR than prog rock. Then again, that ship (hah!) had sailed a long time ago. It's miles better than anything else on the album though, which is a sad indictment of the final Genesis recording. Driven mostly on lush keyboards with a nice guitar backing it's an example of what latter-day Genesis could do when they put their minds to it, though of course it's light-years removed from the likes of "One for the vine" or even "Burning rope". Those days, I'm afraid, are long gone. One of the longer tracks is up next, and "Alien afternoon" has a lingering sense of the ghost of Phil Collins about it somehow, although he doesn't seem to have been involved in the writing. It opens with a swirling, atmospheric synth that puts me in mind of the start of a-ha's "Cry wolf", then quickly devolves into a kind of "That's all" slowed down, with some sort of attempt at reggae in there somewhere. It's a decent song, not the worst, with some nice deep backing vocals, and Wilson sounding at times like Glen Tilbrook. Yeah, I know. Nice synth passages from Tony Banks, the guitar a lot more restrained than in the previous songs. Strange lyric, don't quite understand it, and it rambles on for nearly eight minutes. Not sure if that's a good idea; it seems a little overstretched. I could see it finishing in six minutes and the rest just seems kind of tacked on. Another ballad is next, one of only three on which Ray Wilson helps out on the songwriting, and to be fair it's not bad, but at this stage in Genesis' career I'm afraid "not bad" is just not acceptable. The fans deserve more, and sad to say on this album they do not get it. "Not about us" is a nice little acoustic number on which Rutherford gets to shine, and Wilson handles the vocal really well. I feel sorry for him in a way, as he was obviously coming into what must have seemed to him a huge opportunity to raise his profile and really show what he was capable of, and after one album and a lacklustre tour it was all over. The more I listen to this album though the more I hear Mike and the Mechanics, which tells its own story. There's very little to compare this to "We can't dance" or even "Invisible touch". I really like Wilson's voice and it's a pity he didn't get more of a shot at this because I think he was a decent fit for Genesis, but it seems the fans weren't prepared to accept any successor to Collins: if Genesis wanted to make a case for continuing without their longtime member and frontman they needed to produce an album that would blow the fans away and show they could make it without the bald one. This album was not it, and they would only get one chance. It kind of starts to nosedive from here on in. "If that's what you need" is another ballad, has a nice keyboard line leading it and a very competent vocal, with some nice little guitar touches from Rutherford, but it's standing with one foot over the precipice at this point and trying very hard not to look down; we all know how that's going to end. "The dividing line" gets things rocking again with some nice basswork from I guess Rutherford, and a sprightly keyboard line from Banks, with D'Virgilio bashing the skins with real purpose, but after the introductory instrumental which kinds of harks back to the 1983 album in places the song just fails to live up to its promise. It's almost as if Wilson is driving the band to be tougher, harder, more aggressive and rockier, but they're finding it hard to change. We're back mostly in ballad territory, though with a harder edge than the previous slow songs, for "Uncertain weather", with perhaps one of Wilson's finest vocal performances, dripping with emotion, but then we get "Small talk", which is, well, how can I say this without being unkind? I can't. So I'll be unkind. It's crap. Terrible. One of the worst Genesis tracks I've ever heard, and I've sat through the entire "Abacab" album! God, just get me out of here! Another dark ballad then in "There must be some other way", which does retain some of the old Genesis style, and gears up then getting a bit tougher as it goes along. Another faultless vocal from Wilson, edging into Plant territory at times, though I feel the extended keyboard solo near the end is just going over the same ground as "Fading lights", the closing track from "We can't dance" (how funny is that? When I went to hit the "W" for the album title I hit the £ sign instead! Freudian slip?); the vocal even comes back after it to the fade, just like that song. Running out of ideas? But it's not the closer, that's reserved for the utterly forgettable "One man's fool", which after hearing the album several times still slips by me. Not good. The horns are just annoying. It does pick up near the end but then it just kind of fades out quite disappointingly. TRACKLISTING 1. Calling all stations 2. Congo 3. Shipwrecked 4. Alien afternoon 5. Not about us 6. If that's what you need 7. The dividing line 8. Uncertain weather 9. Small talk 10. There must be some other way 11. One man's fool And disappointing is the only way I can describe this album. It's not the worst Genesis album ever --- "Abacab" will always hold that dubious honour --- but for the final Genesis album it falls far short. It's not that it's a bad album. There are some really good tracks on it, but it's beaten into the ground by "We can't dance" in terms of consistency and considering it was the album on which Genesis were making a very difficult transition from one frontman who had been with them twenty years to another who had just joined, it was surely of vital importance that they made sure it was a stormer. This was their chance to leave behind, in the nicest possible way, the legacy of Phil Collins forever and prove they could make it without him. In that I think they utterly failed. And it's not down to the singer. They didn't choose the wrong vocalist in Ray Wilson. He's damn good, though to be fair nobody was ever going to replace Collins unless somehow Peter Gabriel had rejoined, and that's about as likely as me getting into hardcore jazz! But he did a very good job. It's just that the songs on this album weren't up to the standard we had come to expect from Genesis over the years, and you can only work with what you've got. They didn't even let him write much --- three of the eleven here have his input, although one of them is the abysmal "Small talk" --- so he hadn't any real chance to impact upon the process other than through his voice. Disappointing sales, reduced demand for concert tickets and, let's be honest, probably embarrassment led to the guys telling Wilson that he was no longer required. They weren't firing him as such, but the band was breaking up. Mind you, the return of Phil Collins with the other two to the stage in 2007 for a one-off tour started the rumour mill going, and while there has been no announcement of a new album this is always a possibility. I think it would be a step backwards personally, but the Wilson idea seems to have had its day and been discarded, though he still tours with his own band performing Genesis songs. After a career spanning forty-four years, fifteen studio albums and various lineup changes, this has so far been the terminus for the Genesis express. Maybe a new album will be forthcoming, but after now fourteen years you would have to say hope is fading. Sadly, if this is to be the end of the Genesis story, it's not the triumph that it should have been, and after four and a half decades in the business one of the world's biggest and most successful progressive rock bands go out not with a bang, not quite with a whimper, but with a sort of annoyed little moan. Calling all stations? Puts me more in mind of a song by Chris de Burgh: Transmission ends. Over. And almost certainly Out. |
(Note: This is the "lost review" which was published during Metal Month in October of last year, but somehow vanished from my journal. Seems a shame to waste it so, although Metal Month is but a fading memory now, here's the original review.)
Heartwork --- Carcass --- 1993 (Earache) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Heartwork.jpg Is there really a term "melodic death metal"? The two seem incompatible somehow, and yet, after listening to In Flames I would wonder. There's certainly a world --- a galaxy --- of difference between "Sounds from a playground fading" and "Heretic", for example. So can the sub-genre be split even further, subdivided into other sounds and influences? Well yes of course it can: death metal already encompasses elements of technical, progressive, doom, and of course goregrind, deathgrind and any other grind you care to mention, to say nothing of deathcore and even death'n'roll! So melodic death metal doesn't seem that much a stretch. I'm taking a listen to this album for one reason only really: I love the cool sleeve designed by HR Giger. Now that may seem shallow and simplistic, but you know, I don't have the time (nor the inclination) to listen to every band's full discography, and unlike The Batlord and Unknown Soldier I don't know all of these bands intimately already, so I'm sort of puddle-hopping here, not quite throwing a dart at a board but certainly making guesses, sometimes educated sometimes not, at what might be the best example of a particular artiste's work, what's considered their seminal album, or on occasions, just the one that is likely to make my ears bleed the least. This one comes recommended, so I'm willing to give it a go. It's all quite tasteful really for the opener, "Buried dreams", with decent chugging guitar work that stays on the road rather than careening madly over the edge and into the abyss, but then when the vocals come in, well, let's just say they're a little disappointing. Still, I'm sort of getting used, or immune perhaps, to death vocals so it doesn't turn me off when Jeff Walker spits and growls the lyric at me. I'm trying to listen to the music. And it's pretty good really. "Carnal forge" is a lot faster and confused, with the vocal totally indecipherable to me. But then a really nice guitar solo cuts through the confusion and the track takes on a different identity, before plunging back into the maelstrom it emerged briefly from. "No love lost" could I suppose be said to characterise my own relationship with death metal, definitely not a genre I could ever see myself getting into. Again it's got good guitar parts and some fine shredding from Michael Arnott, but not too much else to recommend it, from my girly point of view. The vocals certainly don't help. The title track then seems to want to compete for the fastest, hardest opening of a track I've yet heard, and still it settles down to some really good fretwork before Walker comes in to snarl all over it again. Nice double guitar attack near the end but it doesn't last for more than a few seconds. I guess I could see the "melodic" side of this if it wasn't for the roaring and screaming of Jeff Walker, because the two guitarists are really good, Jeff can play the bass and the drummer is certainly competent (sorry but that's all I can ever say about drummers: I couldn't tell you who's a great one and who's a bad one). Even so, it's again sort of sliding by without making too much of an impression on me, as "Embodiment" slips into "This mortal coil" and on into "Arbeit macht fleish" without any real difference making itself apparent to me. I believe, unless I miss my guess, that the title of that last one is German for "Freedom through labour" and is at the entrance to the notorious Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. Other than that, I have no interest in this track. Or most of the others that came before it. Nor, in all likelihood, the ones to follow, of which there are three. "Blind bleeding the blind" (see what they did there?) at least has some interesting stop/start guitar and some pretty slick solos, and slows down from the breakneck speed of the last few songs, while "Doctrinal expletives" doesn't leave too much to the imagination, and the album closes on perhaps a rather appropriate track entitled "Death certificate", which certainly has a lot of power and ends the album with a final karate chop to the neck, though for me it's more being put out of my misery really. TRACKLISTING 1. Buried dreams 2. Carnal forge 3. No love lost 4. Heartwork 5. Embodiment 6. This mortal coil 7. Arbeit macht fleisch 8. Blind bleeding the blind 9. Doctrinal expletives 10. Death certificate It's a struggle to see how this kind of music can qualify as melodic under any criteria you care to mention, though it can't be denied the guitar work is at times quite superb. But unlike In Flames, there are few hooks here and less real melody, with every track just pounding along as fast as is humanly possible and Jeff Walker screeching and snarling over the whole thing. Never gonna get this, never. I know, I know! Go put your lipstick on and shave your legs. Well to be honest I'd be happier doing that than listening to this kind of metal any longer than I have to. It's not quite torture but it's certainly not my idea of enjoyment either. |
Aw man, that's a great review: too bad we didn't get to see it last year. That being said, I don't think Carcass would be considered that representative of melodic death metal in the modern sense because they don't use any clean singing: the melodies are in the guitar harmonies, but that normally isn't enough of a qualification. :)
That being said, if you want to hear examples of melodic death metal that actually do go into great "melodic" territory, you should check out any of the following records: http://5oclockrock.ro/wp-content/upl...2/SOLUTION.jpg Solution .45 - For Aeons Past http://www.metalblast.net/wp-content...g_infinite.jpg Soilwork - The Living Infinite http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/im...ty-crimson.jpg Edge Of Sanity - Crimson |
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People round here know me --- correctly, mostly --- as an avid prog head, sometime metal head and a rocker in general, but there are a lot of genres I don’t subscribe to. The guys are trying to help me address this by assisting me in my soon-to-begin exploration of the world of jazz, and reggae is on the cards somewhere too, possibly soul, who knows? But one genre I have pretty much very little time at all for is the generic pop or chart music, particularly what passes for “r’n’b” these days. To me, it is really the lowest common denominator when it comes to music. It’s basically throwaway, wallpaper music with about as much thought put into it as a Steven Segal movie. I’m a great one for slagging off pop/chart music, but with this being a new year and all, and having been mightily impressed with the debut album from Chvrches, I’ve decided to dedicate a spot to reviewing pop albums. Mostly new ones, though they won’t always be. I’ll try to review them with my usual lack of bias, but will be mentioning what I thought of the artiste (if anything) prior to hearing the new album and how, if at all, my opinion of them changes after that. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...itney_Jean.png Britney Jean --- Britney Spears --- 2013 (RCA) And who better to start with than a lady who made her mark on the charts with poppy, bland little dance songs but who looked great in a school uniform? After seven albums Britney is now more a musical corporate entity than just a singer, and she’s certainly been down the “bad celeb” route, none of which particularly interests me. What I want to know is, is this, her eighth album in fourteen years, any good? To be fair, I’ve never heard a Britney album up to now, but who could not be familiar with her hits. I said HITS! Yes, I know I used that joke before. Yes I know it’s annoying. Yes I know I’m still doing it. But what are her albums like? I’ve pointed out before that sometimes the hit singles are not the real measure of the person. Labels will of course release the catchiest songs off an album with the hope that they will become hits, get into the charts or at least garner some airplay for the artiste. But often hiding away on the album are some pretty excellent tracks which would never be released, and may show a whole different side to the performer. Or not. Hey, if The Batlord can listen to Britney then so can I, huh? The opening track doesn’t impress me from the start, with its staggered synth and the autotune seeming to be used on her voice. “Alien” moves at a sort of mid-pace, and it’s co-written with William Orbit, so I guess I can hear his trance-y sound here. Give her her due, she has a hand in writing every song here, so you’ve got to admire that. I actually think I’ve heard this song before. Meh, it’s okay. I do find again the amount of people involved in an album like this a bit ridiculous. Including producers, engineers, photographers etc there are over sixty people credited here! “Work bitch” is an annoying eurodance song with plenty of synth and that thumping beat that always turns me off trance music. Bleh. She sings well, there’s no doubt about that, and this is one of those songs that, despite my initial dislike of it, I can see bouncing around in my head for hours after finishing this review. Damn it! This was the first single, or so I’m told. “Perfume” is slower, with again synth backing and piano, a song on which Britney exercises the more passionate side of her voice, the yearning tone we’ve heard in the likes of “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman”, sort of a bitter revenge type song. Wiki calls this a power ballad, eighties-influenced. It’s not. It’s nothing close to that. I wouldn’t even call it a ballad. Nice track though. Think I’ll end up with this in my head too later on. Featuring a guest vocal from Will.i.am (why can’t he just call himself William?) “It should be easy” typifies the kind of pop I hate: autotune, bouncing piano and synth, empty vacuous trash. And I mean that in the best possible way. No I don’t. This is bloody awful. This is the kind of crap I would regularly hear pouring from my neighbour’s bedroom on a hot summer afternoon and wish her teenage daughter would listen to some real music as I turned up my own metal or rock. Sigh. On we go. Another guest is rapper T.I who lends his voice to “Tik tik boom”, on which Britney’s voice is certainly sexy on a sort of half-rap in a mid-paced tune with some nice keys, but I really don’t have time for rappers sorry. He certainly sounds good at what he does, this T.I chap, but it’s not for me. Mercifully it’s not a long song and we’re on to the next one, which is called “Body ache” and is another dance number. So far, this album is exemplifying pretty much everything I hate about the charts, dance and pop music. It all just sounds empty to me, soulless. Well, not all of it. But a lot of it. Too much squawking synth, not enough guitar. Possibly not any guitar, or if there is any there I can’t hear it, drowned out by the mutliple banks of Korgs, Moogs and whatever else. “Till it’s gone” features that “ay-ay-ay” thing I hate in pop vocals, where they stretch out each word to infinity. It’s yet another electro/dance number, and bar the second and third track so far I’m hearing little to recommend this album to me at this point. The autotune is as ever very annoying, as are the bouncing, growling, farting synths. I suppose I should be grateful that at least the songs are all short, with only one over four minutes. It could be so much worse. But even so it’s pretty bad. I’m in the same frame of mind as I was when reviewing Kylie’s “Aphrodite” album. After one decent single I was crushed by how bad the rest of it was. This is turning out the same. Generic pop pap, nothing to so far change my mind, either about Britney nor about pop music itself. A slower, slightly menacing track is “Passenger”, with a much better vocal from Britney and even some guitar coming through. Sort of reminds me of Imagine Dragons or someone like that. “Chillin’ with you” features a duet with her sister, Jamie Lynn, who apparently has chosen the country music route for her bid for fame, and has at least some nice acoustic guitar driving it. Balladic certainly, it features drum machines but slower than has been the case up to now until the chorus when it speeds up a little, kind of ruins it. The closer then is “Don’t cry”, with a western feel to it, whistling intro and acoustic guitar then some really nice basswork taking us into a kind of anthemic ballad that finishes the album much more strongly than I had been expecting. Actually, the last three tracks greatly improved the overall quality of the songs on the album but we’re still left with a midsection of pretty mediocre tracks after a reasonably good beginning. To use an old football metaphor, the forwards are good and the defenders know what they’re doing but the midfield needs a lot of work. TRACKLISTING 1. Alien 2. Work bitch 3. Perfume 4, It should be easy 5. Tik tik boom 6. Bodyache 7. Till it’s gone 8. Passenger 9. Chillin’ with you 10. Don’t cry They say this is a concept album. I don’t see it. I’ve read the overview and I still don’t understand it. What I do know is this is a pretty formulaic album that falls back on the usual tricks of bringing in songwriters, producers and guest vocalists that pop music seems to revel in. I still can’t get my head around why one album needs so many personnel? But to be fair, if what resulted was a masterpiece, a classic, then I would accept it. This is not, in my opinion, a masterpiece. But then, maybe it wasn’t intended to be. I know, as I say, little of the vagaries of pop music, but the albums I’ve listened to all seem to follow the same basic formula, the formula that seems to bring them chart success, so maybe that’s all Britney Spears is doing here. Gotta eat, after all. And buy clothes. Lots of clothes. Still, it’s not for me and has done nothing to change my mind about pop music. Perhaps next time? But as far as Britney is concerned, I’d have to say, baby, don’t hit me one more time... |
Getting into new genres, huh? Hm...perhaps I should tie you to a chair and attempt to convince you the validity of funk/rap rock. >:)
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Trollheart, next thing you do is review Justin Bieber's Believe. No, that was not a request, it was an order.
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Screamadelica
Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica Screamadelica |
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(Also, should this not be in the "Classic albums" journal? :confused: |
I already did it there
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You know what? Since I've already heard it, I might as well review it, too. It's JB week, everybody!
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Not for me, it's not. I've paid my debt to society by listening to Westlife, Boyzone, Nsync, New Edition, Backstreet Boys and Take That! Enough already! (Shiver)
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You've already been through all that crap, one album can't make much of a difference..! :)
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Trollheart reviews albums in the style of Urban Hat€monger
Number One: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...e-JB-Album.jpg Justin Bieber ---- Believe Shit. |
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