Only one album can head this year’s set of reviews, and that is Peter Gabriel’s finest moment as a recording artist with an album so towering in scope and execution, it must rank as being in my top three of all time.
Well, given that it is Easter, I thought that a review of an album representative of the season would be appropriate, and there is no prog LP more representative than this one.
I have enjoyed Gabriel's music for well over 32 years now, both with Genesis and as a solo artist. This LP is, by probably a long way, his worst selling album, but it is also, by an equally long way, his best. Written as the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ, a blistering account of a rather obscure novel wondering what Christ's life, and ours, would have been like had He succumbed to the temptation of Mary Magdalene and a normal life, before reverting to Christ redeeming him and us by climbing back on the Cross, the album was, typically for Gabriel, very much delayed whilst he perfected his work. I'm glad he did.
This is probably the first album by a major Western artist (which, of course, Gabriel was after his success with So) that fuses mainly third world musical influences and instruments with more mainstream progressive rock. The Senegalese singer, Youssou N'Dour, who guested on So, is the most recognisable singer on this and he absolutely shines. There are no lyrics as such, just a combination of deep and beautiful soundscapes with chants, with a magnificent choral With This Love thrown in, which takes us back to the very earliest musical influences of Gabriel as a child at Charterhouse School.
There are far too many tracks to review separately, and, anyway, this would rather lose the point of the LP. It demands to be heard as a single work, right from start to end. If you also are familiar with the film and the Passion itself, it all blends in and fuses together to make perfect sense.
Different Drum, with N'Dour's haunting screams, replays the thrashing of the Temple. Passion, so North African in both its feel and sympathies, replays Christ's passage towards the inevitable. And for those reading this who are either atheist, agnostic, or simply do not see the relationship between music, faith, and our basic humanity, there are the final two tracks, It is Accomplished and Bread And Wine, recounting, of course, the final crucifixion, agony, and ultimate triumph of Christ. They are stunning pieces of music, with tribal chants, blending with Gabriel's unique keyboards, a simply stunning drum, and bass line, before reverting to a simple eulogy to the risen Christ.
I am not a particularly religious person, although I regard myself as a Christian quietly. This is not a religious album, per se. It is a triumph of the human spirit, a perfect blend of Eastern, African, and Western musical themes and influences, which served as both a perfect backdrop to a great work of film art, and as a musical piece of wonder.
It is essential for any discerning prog fans collection. Quite wondrous.
Everybody’s favourite band masquerading as a firm of local solicitors, this is a fine album, with the exception of an absolutely, tragically, incredibly bad piece of cod reggae
No one writing a series of Yes reviews, as I have lately, can ignore this album. This was set in train as a solo Anderson project after he left Yes in a huff following Big Generator but was persuaded to bring in his old pals by his then wife Jennifer. Legend has it that some of the band members were less keen on the idea than others - Bruford was quoted as saying he was asked to do drums on the project, got off the plane, and then exclaimed “Oh no, Not Yes!” when he saw Howe & Wakeman.
The band were legally excluded from using the Yes name by Yes West (Squire, Rabin, Kaye, and White), so invented a title that sounded somewhat like a firm of very expensive solicitors and embarked on a hugely enjoyable and lucrative tour with the moniker An Evening of Yes Music Plus.
I really like this album. Not a perfect one by any stretch, but still a huge improvement on Big Generator. Aside from Anderson, who remains my favourite vocalist, I feel that the star is Bruford. He tried out his all-electronic set of drums for the album and I think it sounds fantastic.
Themes starts well instrumentally, and Fist of Fire is a pleasant song which doesn't really give much of a clue as to what is to follow. Because Brother of Mine is exceptional, from the first piece of Anderson majestically singing So... right the way through some exemplary ensemble playing by the band. You know from listening to this, despite many reservations, just how glad they all are to be getting on and playing together.
I like Birthright. Howe starts it off with a fine acoustic piece, and Anderson proceeds to tell a story well of how the British treated appallingly a set of islanders during the Cold War by relocating them from their home (birth right) because of nuclear testing. This became quite a famous High Court case in the UK later.
The Meeting is also exceptional, rightly a favourite live. Wakeman shows us all just how much we have missed him by playing exceptionally sensitive and intelligent piano to Anderson's gentle ballad.
Quartet has a fantastic Howe opening and is a good solid group effort. It is also very clearly a sly old dig at Yes West, who were still floundering without a vocalist.
What follows this is without doubt the worst thing all four have ever been associated with - Teakbois is genuinely shocking, a pale and limp cod reggae piece that deserves to be well and truly dumped into the dustbin of history - if you download this album, take the option of leaving this one out. This track alone takes one star off the overall rating.
The long epic of the album is Order of the Universe, and I really like this track. There is some exceptional lead guitar work, also very complex, by Howe, whilst Milton McDonald also plays very well backing Howe. The track is the rockiest of the album, Bruford plays exceptionally, and the keyboard main sequence by Wakeman is a joy, especially the beginning of the closing sequence which features Anderson's voice soaring la las.
Let's Pretend is the album's closer, a nice ballad.
It is difficult to rate this album. I still enjoy this and enjoy even more the video of the concert in America that followed not long afterwards. All four musicians, and their exalted guest Tony Levin (one of the finest bassists of all time), play excellently and there is only really one bum track on it.
It's certainly not perfect but falls between good and excellent.
Like most Marillion fans, it was Fish who drew me to the band in the first instance, from the early Marquee days I was a huge fan. This LP went a long way to persuading me that the new incarnation might be worth sticking with.
The album opens with a bang as King of Sunset Town bursts into life. A frenetic and powerful song about Tiananmen Square, it is the perfect showcase for a band obviously enjoying a new creative phrase with a bloke who can sing well.
Easter is simply the finest ballad I have in an extensive collection, and if you get the chance to see the live version in Dublin on You Tube, do so.
The title track is again moving, sad, and powerful, with all band members stretching the limits.
The Uninvited Guest & Hooks in You are fun tracks which showed that the band had not lost their touch in writing catchy singles to attract a wider audience than the prog core.
Berlin & Holloway Girl are interesting songs, which hint at a future direction. The only track which, to my mind, prevents this LP being more than an excellent one is The Space, a track I have always found unconvincing and over long.
If readers are looking for an introduction to the band still the finest post prog outfit around, they could do a lot worse than start with this. An exciting, new, and still remarkably fresh sounding LP after all this time. Yes, we loved Fish, but, by God, Hogarth is a great successor.