One of the most pleasurable consequences I have had in converting my vinyl to digital has been the opportunity to listen to this absolute gem again, after far too long.
This is, arguably, Tull's last crucial and high-quality studio LP. What followed wasn't necessarily bad, but certainly was nowhere near the essential nature of this.
I always enjoyed Tull more with their folk influences to the fore, rather than the bluesier side. For such people, this album certainly does not disappoint.
This has some absolute crackers, and high amongst them are the title tracks themselves. Beastie starts proceedings off, and rips along at a fair old pace. Broadsword is a somewhat more thoughtful affair, and, to these ears, manages to perfectly combine the new synth approach perfectly with more traditional Tull sounds. Barre certainly never sounded better.
Pussy Willow has its tongue firmly in cheek and is a rip-roaring barrel of fun.
My favourite two tracks from the album, however, are the slower ones, namely Slow Marching Band, and Cheerio, the latter of which is still a live favourite to this day.
There are a couple of throwaway tracks, Watching Me, Watching You, which I never liked, and Seal Driver, which is more accessible, but not classic, on side two.
However, overall, this is, to these ears, a near perfect combination of what Anderson was trying to attain at the time. A more modern and commercial approach with the more traditional sounds and elements so as not to completely alienate his loyal audience. On that level, it works very well.
For those of you who have never sampled the delights of this band, or who have only ever listened to Thick As A Brick, then I would heartily recommend this album as a good starting point.
This is a great LP, and the first LP where we can definitively state that Gabriel shook off the heavy hand of Genesis weighing upon him and emerged as a major talent in his own right (and, yes, I have all his solo works. III is still, in my opinion, under the Genesis shadow, as great as it is).
San Jacinto remains my favourite Gabriel track of all time - his plaintive vocals capture the seriousness of the subject matter perfectly, and you can tell he means it. Wallflower is, I think, even better than Biko in drawing to our attention the mass cruelties perpetrated on prisoners of conscience across the world.
The world music crossovers Rhythm of the Heat and The Family & the Fishing Net both bring fantastic atmosphere to the piece, and the drums at the end of the former are particularly fantastic.
Shock the Monkey was a great single, and I am amazed it was never as big as later tracks such as Steam & Sledgehammer.
Lay Your Hands on Me would perhaps have been better left as a great live curiosity when Gabriel jumped into the audience. Kiss of Life closes the LP with a mad world/jazz crossover and these two tracks just make it a great album rather than the perfect one.
Oh dear. This is one of those albums which attracts so much hatred in some circles that it's difficult to imagine that it can be anything other than the work of the devil himself. Satan has come to purge planet earth of the very existence of prog!
The pedigree of the participants in this, the original, and still the best, project was immaculate. Howe from Yes, Wetton from Crimson & UK, Palmer from ELP, and Downes from...erm, Buggles. Alright then, almost immaculate. However, those of us at the time of release expecting a glut of Starless meets Gates Of Delerium meets Tarkus were to be swiftly disavowed in the strongest possible terms.
For what the band produced was nothing less than a 24-carat gold pop rock album, albeit one that contained music that was true to their prog traditions in terms of the intricate musicianship and grandiose designs. In fact, the greatest irony at the time was Steve Howe berating Yes for producing, erm, pop music in the form of 90125.
It is, by the way, a massively successful pop rock album, one of the finest ever recorded, and thoroughly deserved the truckloads of sales it delivered to that nice Mr Geffen. In fact, there is barely a weak moment throughout. There can't be a human on the planet who hasn't, at one stage, sung along to Heat Of The Moment, which is still, of course, a staple of the live set. It's a fantastic single, and rather sets the tone for much of what lay ahead. Sole Survivor is, if anything, even more accomplished, containing a cracking pace, lyrics, and yet, amongst the toe tapping finery, there is prog, and pure prog at that. Listen to the incredibly complex signatures utilised by Howe, and that wonderful, brief, synth solo by Downes, whilst all the time, Palmer sets the drum kit alive.
Nor is that all. Wildest Dreams is progressive rock at its very best, a monstrous piece of music, which is towering in its scope and reach. It is, without doubt, the highlight of the album, and almost of their career. You really wish that Howe had not fallen out with Wetton after the follow up, because his partnership with Downes instrumentally on this evidence had the potential to be as good as anything he produced with Yes, it's that good.
One Step Closer has a fantastic jazzy feel to it, and easily some of Howe's best work ever.
Time Again is richly dark, and does, more than anything else on the album, remind the listener very much of an acid fuelled ELP. Wetton & Palmer keep a massive quick pace, with the latter especially making a huge din, Howe sounds as if he has the time of his life rocking, and Downes proved that he could do both prog and rock, creating a huge overall layer and feel to the track.
And, for more evidence of the fact that this is a progressive album, listen to the beautiful, symphonic, and majestic keyboard extended solo at the back of Cutting It Fine, itself a clever comedown and mood change from an almost hysterical opening section. Without You, although (whisper it quietly) a love song, contains some incredibly complex and well played instrumentation. In fact, what they were all saying was that a piece of music did not necessarily have to be twenty-five minutes long in order to shine. You could also pack in an awful lot of great music in five minutes.
The 1980's are considered by many as the "lost decade" for prog. Well, nonsense. The decade produced some outstanding music, and it should not be forgotten that there were many buyers of this LP who went on to explore the music of the founding members of the band in the 1970's.
As a statement of intent, for incredible commercial progressive music, this album is a masterpiece.
It's strange, you know. You create one of the monster album hits of the rock era, spawning a bundle of hit singles, in Breakfast In America, and, yet, your follow-up, in relative terms, is a bit of a flop. Famous Last Words didn't bomb, but it certainly did not get anywhere near the heights of its famous predecessor, something I find strange really, because most large acts tend to shift shed loads of albums, if nothing else, on the back of reputation and loyalty.
Anyhow, in musical terms, and Supertramp terms, this is most certainly not as good. The hit single, It's Raining Again, is a joy to listen to, and yet more proof, if any were needed, that the hit machine was now exclusively Roger Hodgson's. Quite why, after leaving the band at the end of this recording session, he agreed to waive performance rights to the Rick Davies vehicle which succeeded is anyone's guess. I rather think he must be waking up night after night in a cold sweat, personally.
In more than a few of my reviews, I have expressed my opinion that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a prog band having commercial success, and this lot have provided me with so much pleasure over the years. Going back to my point earlier regarding relatively poor sales, when you listen to relatively mediocre fare such as Put On Your Old Brown Shoes and Bonnie, both continuing Davies' cod pop/jazz, you can see why. These tracks for me simply exemplify the massive shift in an artist who provided us with gems such as Rudy, and the peerless Asylum, to, well, AOR blandness. Waiting So Long on the second side was a more thoughtful affair, but I was never to enjoy a subsequent Tramp album.
The highlight of the LP is the wonderful closer, Don't Leave Me Now, a song so dripping with melancholy and regret, you seriously think about that noose on the ceiling. It is beautiful, and clearly written with the departure of Hodgson in mind - he had, of course, announced his departure during this recording process. Of all of the rest, the Hodgson tracks stand out a bit more, with a personal favourite being the sad Know Who You Are. However, by this stage, all pretence as a song writing collective had been abandoned (Davies and Hodgson always wrote separately, but at least there was a pretence of collective artistry prior to Breakfast In America).
Following this, neither party would ever reach anywhere near the commercial heights of yesteryear, even with the personal endorsement of Princess Diana as being her favourite band, and the feuding between the main protagonists made Waters and Gilmour look like a kindergarten bun fight.
I have it as a completist, and that is all it has to recommend itself, for two excellent tracks do not an excellent album make. A shame, really. Best to remember the good times
Moving Pictures, to me the ultimate Rush album, ushered in a new direction and way of song writing. Signals, an album which is far better in retrospect than perhaps it sounded at the time of release, is its natural successor, and showed the band in fine form still.
The opener sets the tone really for much of what followed, a dark and brooding piece which is very keyboard led, a move that prompted Alex Lifeson in future interviews to express some regret at the stripped-down role of his guitars. Subdivisions is, though, one of the finest songs that the band have ever recorded, very socially caustic and direct in its intent and execution.
The Analog Kid starts off in somewhat more traditional Rush sound, but, to these ears, the highpoint of this excellent track is the "You Move Me" sequence with those synths at the forefront. Another great track which does allow Lifeson to move more to the forefront of events.
Chemistry is simply a fine commercial rock song, in the tradition of tracks such as Limelight on the predecessor album, and it moves along at a fair old pace, and instead of merely guitars, bass, and drums/percussion fused in perfection, here we get synths added to the lead mix as well. What you do notice, though, is just how complex the song structure is by listening to Peart and Lee's rhythm section. An incredible performance.
Digital Man is a track which I really disliked at the time of release but sounds a little better now. However, it is as near to throwaway as this great band get, merely being a white reggae influenced bop along number. Peart's drum performance on the "chorus", though, is a wonder to behold, although the track is at least two minutes too long, as evidenced by Lee's almost bored end vocals.
The Weapon is a return to sheer excellence. I doubt that Geddy Lee ever sounded better, and the mix of guitars and synth, backed by pounding rhythm section, is incredible, and this is also an important track in Peart's developing distaste for big government and the military machine. The lyrics really are dark, and the whole track is deeply brooding.
New World Man is a very catchy, short, poppy rock song which really does what it says on the tin, and not much more.
Losing It is a wonderful, delicate, and distinctly understated track which sounds absolutely nothing like the band had ever done previously, or since come to that. Ben Mink's turn on violin is exceptional, and you wish that this type of Eastern European influenced folk could have figured a little more often in subsequent instrumental work.
Countdown closes proceedings, and is another dark, rather apocalyptic, political track featuring swirling rockets, helicopters, control room monologues, and synths set against a very simple instrumental backdrop. This is another of those tracks I really didn't listen to for many years following the original release, but which sounds far better in hindsight.
As with all prog rock bands at this time, Rush had to either adapt to the changing world, or die commercially, and that they did the former and still produce some exceptional music that managed to bring most older fans along with them, is testament to their talent and, of course, our fierce loyalty.
This is a very good album, and one I heartily recommend to those who do not own it and listened a bit too much to those diehard haters of anything remotely resembling a synth in Rush music. Much of it really is rather excellent.