"Many will say that you're not a real fan of King Crimson, if you're not so crazy about the group's long and partly improvised pieces, but prefer the melodic side of the band. Personally I prefer the group when it stays within the relatively rigid framework which normally applies to the rhythmic m...""Many will say that you're not a real fan of King Crimson, if you're not so crazy about the group's long and partly improvised pieces, but prefer the melodic side of the band.
Personally I prefer the group when it stays within the relatively rigid framework which normally applies to the rhythmic music. Then you can then say that I have not understood the group's uniqueness, well, so be it.
In any event, is widely agreed that "Red" is one of the big albums in rock history, so if I allow myself to make objections, it is obviously I who is something wrong.
The title track "Red" is one of the tracks that I have a little trouble with. It is an instrumental with guitarist Robert Fripp in focus. That he is musical equillibrist is beyond dioscussion, and the sound of the guitar is superb. I think, however, that more than six minutes at the top.
In contrast, "Fallen Angel" has everything I like about the group; A beautiful melodic composition by Fripp / Wetton / Palmer-James. Both vocally and instrumentally very convincing, and in this case, the playing time is perfect.
"One More Red Nightmare" is a little harder to go to, but it is actually a very interesting compostition, both musically and lyrically.
The long instrumental "Providence" may well be hard diet and it contains both harmony and dissonance. As a friend told me, "You can not play music like this, when children are nearby, it could go in their nerves". He may have a point.
"Starless" is as beautiful a song as "Fallen Angel" and it may bring to mind the title track on the group's first album. Unfortunately the group here lets the number grow in some instrumentally complex directions, which some will love and others will feel destroy more than it benefits.'
If you are unfamiliar with King Crimson, this probably won't be the best album to introduce to you. "In the Court of the Crimson King" was the album that convinced me of the band's musical importance.
The sound on this new edition is superb, and moreover the album is expanded with three alternate versions and a DVD containing an interesting live performance from France."Reply
"Arguably his best album. Sure, there are no hit singles, but that's the beauty of Neil young. For those who have only listened to harvest or after the gold rush, give this a listen."Reply
"This record is so much more loved than many people realize. I recommend sifting through the list of top BEA users; this is a popular choice. Of course, an argument based on authority isn't a good one, but it is telling. 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' is the best double album ever made, featurin...""This record is so much more loved than many people realize. I recommend sifting through the list of top BEA users; this is a popular choice. Of course, an argument based on authority isn't a good one, but it is telling. 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' is the best double album ever made, featuring constant shifts in musical styles in a way that features natural and authentic. The lyrics go from humorous to filled with despair in the finale piece, 'The Colony of Slippermen', while they appear somewhat epic in 'The Light Dies Down on Broadway', and introspective on 'it.'. The instrumentals sometimes sound harder, while at other times feeling floatey and silly on songs like 'The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging' and 'Counting Out Time'. Genesis' magnum opus is a record that doesn't get old for me. It always has something exciting to share with the listener, even 42 years later. "Reply
"I have only gotten into Supertramp lately, like in the last few weeks! Have I been living under a stone? How have I missed this band before? Watching Supertramp on YouTube I have realised what incredible musicians were involved in two amazing albums, this and 'Breakfast in America'. Fantastic mus...""I have only gotten into Supertramp lately, like in the last few weeks! Have I been living under a stone? How have I missed this band before? Watching Supertramp on YouTube I have realised what incredible musicians were involved in two amazing albums, this and 'Breakfast in America'. Fantastic musicianship throughout."Reply
"Unsettling, oddly alluring, and unthinkably profound, Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom is a true miracle. It is a monument to what can be accomplished in the rock medium and may forever stand as the greatest album in rock history. As an uncanny, cerebral, gradually developing tidal wave of dense, multi...""Unsettling, oddly alluring, and unthinkably profound, Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom is a true miracle. It is a monument to what can be accomplished in the rock medium and may forever stand as the greatest album in rock history. As an uncanny, cerebral, gradually developing tidal wave of dense, multi-layered emotional outpouring, it unfolds through a series of structurally dynamic religious hymns, deeply affecting in its poetic beauty, enigmatic and explosive as a fertile wonderland of astoundingly moving stream-of-consciousness set to an endlessly flowering prayer that blossoms majestically towards bursting seams of exhausting and intellectually stimulating emotional heights. Rock Bottom is as shattering, as powerful and as subjective and personal as music ever gets. It is one of the very few musical works that heals, that washes away social circuitry and conformist adherence to the status quo, and can propel one on a course towards more vitality, empowering a sense of wonder and creativity and dynamic purpose, a wealth of spiritual unity and an affluence towards heightened awareness and depth, emotional honesty and balance. It is so profound it can actually change one's life. I will never, ever forget the first time I fully cognited on its immense power, such was the clarity, the personal sense of achievement, the rippling effect it had, and continues to have on my very being. If there is but a small handful of works of art I am eternally grateful for, Rock Bottom is one of them, because once its merits fully come to fruition, its power astounds to such degree that its existence, and the fact someone was brilliant enough to actually conceive such a courageous, flat-out, supreme masterpiece, seems all but completely and utterly impossible.
Here is the story of the increasing fluctuation of Wyatt's soul, at once shattered and built by undying passion and love for a woman he would eventually marry--a woman for whom he sees a reflection of nature, the sea and the tides, reflections of happiness, dependancy, relief and faith. This is a perplexing, mysterious and provocative look at the intricate nature and complicated landscapes love treads, the strange idiosynchrocies of devotion, confusion, heartbreak and passion, evoking unlikely simularities between profound, matured spirituality and the naive esprit and childish emotional honesty in longing for the care and affection of one's mother.
Here is a virtual reinvention of both rock and jazz music, sharing a compositional unity that is fascinating, complex and lyrically illustrative in the vein of Lewis Carrol. Wyatt uses the foundations of folk music to support a dense structure of weaving styles and sounds, creating a richly textured and dynamic haven for his fascinating portrayal of his own life-changing journey, reflections and considerations on his intimate relationship with wife Alfreda Benge.
The first half acts as a fluid and gradient entry way into Wyatt's strangely metaphysical and evocative universe. Opener Sea Song is a masterpiece of eerie, luminous folk voiced patiently in the touching melancholia of Wyatt, before lifting into a cognitive and overtaken scat performance, the singer drowns out within his own overwhelming whirlwind of previously suppressed emotions. The patted drumming and perfectly timed keyboard chords are key to the sense of defied gravity, a lunar element presented here and sustained throughout much of the album. A Last Straw is a gateway, moving forward with a unique rhythm, an unorthodox series of angular patterns parallel descending then ascending vocal rises and collapses. All the songs have an immediacy to them, they appear creations of a magician, of God's hand. They are effortlessly suspended in space, growing their own universes, each instrumental or vocal phrase and effect a brushstroke to a magnificant painting. Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road opens a wormhole of constantly changing, wildly pounding bongo drums filling the seams of persistent streams of jazzy instruments set to swimming, magnetic vocals. It is an absolute masterpiece of textures and depth, and a milestone achievement in the conception of scoring "rock" to jazz music. It features some impressive moments of elasticity and jaw-dropping ingenuity when Wyatt's singing gets pulled back into the vaccuum, changing pace and reversing backwards with the vocals and lyrics.
Side two is among the most uniquely moving portions of music ever created. Alifib, probably rock's ultimate love song, is one of the most personal, beautiful and singular musical works ever scored. Has Wyatt been born again? Has he embodied another life form? The first half of the song paints a level of sensitivity and deft keyboard mastery rarely achieved by even the great giants of classical music, throughout an intensely dedicated Wyatt continuously whispers the name of his lover, as if lost in a dreamy reverie, helpless and alone in a coma. The second half of Alifib is intoxicatingly melodious, a mantra of religious sacrifice and healing. Here Wyatt erects a prayer of deeply passionate and sacred heights, as he engages in a monologue of baby talk, somehow managing a merger between keen insight and unabashed immaturity. Wyatt's prayers are that of a child locked in the arms of his mother, at least metaphorically. In truth he is asserting his own feelings that he is on the verge of losing her and this is the denouncement of his previous ways, the ultimate sacrifice of self for the coming transformation towards the embodiment of a new man, and facing potential death he is at once magically reborn. He lies there, repeating between passages of mostly nonsensical verbs, that she is his ultimate source of life, that he depends on her above all else, "Alifie my larder, Alifie my larder." And further, "I cannot forsake you. I cannot forsqueak you." It is in this astonishingly personal rendering that we begin to acknowledge the true depths of his character, the dedication and the synergy from Wyatt to his wife, Alfreda. Everything up to this point has been a search and unveiling. Here Robert Wyatt lays himself completely, utterly bare.
If Alifib marks the foundation, the birth and beginning of Wyatt's newfound immaturity/maturity, the incredible Alife is its more chaotic twin brother, rising hesitantly then spastically, into a daunting level of visceral freedom, and eventual implosion. In its conclusion breathes a wrestling, spewing saxophone, erupting fountains of emotional turmoil. During its introduction, Wyatt is hesitant and tired as he pronounces a stumbling but verbatim recollection of Alifib. At its close, his wife finally responds as the song boils in a juxtaposition of steaming vigor, denouncing his prayer in a startling nursery rhyme that is both ironically understanding in a sympathetic motherly persona as well as slightly disgusted and decisively dismissive. The closer Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road, is among the most pressing, emphatic and enigmatic stews in rock history. Here Wyatt reaches multiple levels of finality, as sweeping, smashing bursts of cymbal crashes rush towards the coda, backed by a pummeling group of instruments before a magical metamorphosis bleeds out into a heavenly backdrop. This last portion of the song is one of tremendous insight. Wyatt (using Ivan Cutler on vocals) presents a series of scenes voiced in an intentionally unintelligible manner, yet insinuate a haunting, unearthed childish tendency towards violence, while the music in the background and the basic melody upon which the voice sings are both caught in a sea of floating, see-sawing, harmonic beauty. This draws a starkly contrasting, yet parallel view to what began with Sea Song. As rock historian Piero Scaruffi has accurately noted, it bridges the apparent gap between an intense religious hymn and a childish nursery rhyme, thus offering them as one and the same. Perhaps Wyatt is communicating that no matter our form, no matter our age and no matter our personality, we are all innately beautiful, loving and creative spiritual beings. I have a feeling he learned this most of all, from his wife, who helped lead him through and past a tragic accident that year which left him paralyzed from the waist down after his fall from a 4th story window. Thus, Rock Bottom can be viewed as an ode to Alfreda Benge, the woman who understood his complex genius no matter what, and the woman with whom he shared his life with from that point forward.
That said, Rock Bottom causes multiple combinations of feelings, ideas and inspirations hitherto unimaginable, and is without easy definition, without singular intepretation; ultimately complete, utterly incredible, and heart-wrenchingly, impossibly life-affirming. "Reply
"Experimental glam rock refreshingly different to his later ambient pieces (not that his ambient music isn't good). "Jets" is filled with in-your-face idiosyncrasies whilst still being somewhat catchy. A terrific debut & a fascinating precursor to Eno's masterpiece "Another Green World"."Reply
"Diamond dogs, was originally meant to be a musical version of 1984, but due to publishing rights not being available to him Bowie had to knock it on the head. In it's place is, diamond dogs. Is it a musical concept? I have no idea. It makes no sense to me. Still, it's a good record, although pers...""Diamond dogs, was originally meant to be a musical version of 1984, but due to publishing rights not being available to him Bowie had to knock it on the head. In it's place is, diamond dogs. Is it a musical concept? I have no idea. It makes no sense to me. Still, it's a good record, although personally, I think it's his weakest original material release of the seventies. The title track is a good Rolling Stones pastiche, and, rebel,rebel, is one of the great Bowie singles, and really the last of his glam rock numbers. Elsewhere, there's the nice, rock and roll with me, and the sweet thing/candidate, is good, but as a concept, if that's what it is, it simply doesn't work. Still, it is seventies Bowie, so it's still essential. "Reply
"This is a great record but I don't think it is better than his other work with it lacking the consistency and standout tracks of some of his other releases. With that being said there is some brilliant music on here that is so enjoyable to listen to. Jorge Ben seems to just know how to make sound...""This is a great record but I don't think it is better than his other work with it lacking the consistency and standout tracks of some of his other releases. With that being said there is some brilliant music on here that is so enjoyable to listen to. Jorge Ben seems to just know how to make sounds that get stuck in our head as every one of his albums have a few songs that I can't get out of my head after the record is over. I think it is mainly due to the infectious instrumentation and his understanding of the importance of rhythm. He really is a master with instrumentation and sound and creates such beautiful recordings. Overall, another very enjoyable record from Jorge Ben with loads of songs to fall in love with but it isn't as good as some of his other releases. "Reply
"There were a couple of hints on the first two albums of how great Queen was going to be. Namely "Keep yourself Alive" and "Nevermore" When The Sheer Heart Attack album came out it was Queen finally mastering their style and sound. From heavy to campy, theres not a bad song on the record. My favor...""There were a couple of hints on the first two albums of how great Queen was going to be. Namely "Keep yourself Alive" and "Nevermore" When The Sheer Heart Attack album came out it was Queen finally mastering their style and sound. From heavy to campy, theres not a bad song on the record. My favorite release by them."Reply
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