MARILLION - BRAVE
If I were forced to make a disclosure of my favourite album of all time, the one I return to regularly and still find something new every time I listen, this would be the one.
Genius. End of.
Thankfully, after the lacklustre Holidays in Eden, the band gave us this, the first of the truly great classics which the Hogarth era has provided us with.
I cannot find a fault with this LP. From the opening bars of The Bridge (surprisingly very good live, even on its own - see Marbles live DVD), to Made Again, Hogarth tells the story of a teenage runaway who ends up killing herself from jumping off the Severn Bridge superbly. Apparently, Hogarth got the idea from listening to a news story.
Hard As Love is a strong, rocking anthem to abuse, with Hogarth shouting out the lyrics as if he were the victim. The Hollow Man (the single did not chart) comes down miles to a quiet introspective gloom.
Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury follows the tradition of strong singles, whilst Paper Lies rocks with the unfairness of the news media. Again, on this, Hogarth drips with passion and scorn against his target.
Brave, the title track, gives the backdrop to the inevitable end, and is a thoughtful ballad. And then comes the ultimate song... The Great Escape. I defy anyone listening to this track not to be moved at the tragic outcome of a young life, and I swear that Rothery's guitar sings in mourning to us. It is quite exceptional.
The band sound like a fellowship on this work. It is as if they had decided their fate - not to be shackled to the whims of EMI and other majors, but to break free and make music that they loved and pass on that passion to fans. All the members of the band contribute, but I especially rate Kelly & Rothery's sounds. The latter has rarely had better days!
This LP marked the passage from being a mere fan to being fanatical about the band. It is in the top three of my extensive collection, and I would rate it as being an essential addition to any collection. Certainly, it is the finest concept piece I have.
All sceptics of the H era should give this a chance.
This is a fantastic album, and a concept based upon Arthur C Clarke's excellent Songs Of Distant Earth novel which deals with space travellers/pioneers having to deal with the fact that Mother Earth has been destroyed.
I don't think there are many albums where Oldfield has sounded so focused and created such a coherent narrative that takes its listeners from start to finish in the manner of the novel itself.
Some of his guitar work, especially, is supreme, and for fans of what is called New Age music, the choral and female vocal passages, married with the ambient synth effects and decidedly Celtic feel to much of the music, are a joy to listen to. You will also hear more than a few Native American influences in here.
You feel in the music the emotion and the panging for Lost Earth, but also the realisation of space as the final frontier for the survival of mankind as a species, thus looking forward.
There is barely a poor moment on this, and Oldfield really does take you to a higher plain listening to it.
How to rate it, though?
This is an excellent album, and amongst the finest pieces of work this incredibly talented musician ever produced, and that is, of course, saying something. There are moments of soaring beauty contained within this, but it just, to me, falls short of the masterpiece rating. I could, for example, have done without the repetitive announcements on Only Time Will Tell, which detract a little bit from some of the extremely good Native American vocalisations. Prayer For The Earth, which follows, is far better for just allowing us to listen to a gorgeous, lilting, prayer allied to some ambient keys and acoustic guitar.
It is, though, very highly recommended.
Amid the fallout of yet another breakup following the “Onions” debacle, Talk was released with the 90125 lineup reunited. An album which has been vilified by many, it stands up very well in 2022 in my opinion.
Following the disaster that was Union, Wakeman, Howe, and Bruford quit (again) leaving the future of the band in serious doubt. However, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun approached the Yes West incarnation to ask them to record an LP on his new Victory Records label, assuming that the world would rush out and buy son of 90125 in their masses. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out like that - the album was very poorly publicised, the critics all but ignored it, and the label went bust. This incarnation of the band would never record again. Oh well....
All of this is a shame because this is a criminally underrated album. Rabin did just about all the writing and production, but, crucially, he allowed Anderson a strong voice in its making that had been absent from previous albums, and Jon responded in kind, producing an incredible vocal performance and willing the band to succeed.
The Calling opens the album in fine style. This is an old-fashioned rock track, and Alan White is on particularly good form with loud drums.
I am Waiting is one of the finest love songs produced by the band, starting with a deceptively thoughtful guitar piece by Rabin, opening to a full-blown rock anthem, before settling down again. Rabin is tremendous on this. One of the best tracks the band produced after the so-called classic period ended.
Real Love and State of Play are both fine rock epics, and the band really push out their credentials as both a progressive band and a rock band credible to fans in an era when grunge dominated.
Walls slows the tempo down a great deal. This is the one track that survived to CD the dalliance Squire, Rabin, and White had with Roger Hodgson, formerly of Supertramp. It has some of that band's quirkiness, with Rabin and Anderson certainly enjoying a great deal the vocal interplay on the chorus.
Where will you Be is a fine atmospheric piece that again shows Rabin at his finest. The man really did bring a lot to Yes. He's no Howe (who is?), but a distinct vocal and guitar style of his own added to the band certainly.
The Endless Dream trilogy has long been painted as this incarnation's Close to the Edge. To compare the two is ridiculous. It is, though, fantastic. Some exceptionally brooding guitar work, contrasts with Anderson's soaring lyrics. When he sings It's the first time, telling us this life, you realise just what a return to form this song and album are. The Talk Talk section features some fine vocal harmonies and band instrumental interplay. Over 15 minutes of pure prog heaven, this is amongst the finest pieces by any incarnation of the band.
Very much misunderstood by some fans and critics alike, I would urge all prog fans to get this LP. It really is a fine example of a band supposedly on its last legs shouting out to the world that they still had the creativity and musical nouse to produce a great work. What a shame it didn't translate into vast success at the time.
Released in 1994, this wonderful solo release by the voice of Yes presaged the orchestral release Magnification by his band some eight years later. Anderson decided to make a purely symphonic work (in the truest sense of the word) with The London Chamber Orchestra, combining new compositions with a mixture of Jon & Vangelis and Yes classics, all of which were completely reworked.
The result is one of Anderson's finest works in an illustrious career, and one which I, for one, really wish had been taken out on the road and developed far more in subsequent releases.
The recognisable "hits" are State Of Independence, Hearts, Candle Song, and the title track. Three of these were, of course, written and recorded with Vangelis, and, in addition, Anderson also includes a previously unreleased collaboration, The Kiss. All of which might lead some people to think that the remainder were somehow substandard. Well, not a bit of it.
Shaker Loops, written by John Adams, is a rip-roaring symphonic track, with exceptional percussion. Alive & Well, written with David Tolley (a key collaborator on this album) features the very talented Gwendolyn Mok on classical piano, and is a lovely piece, showing to the fore just what a fine symphonic composer Anderson really is, and demonstrating that symphonic music does not always have to be accompanied by a wall of sound in order to be effective and enjoyable (at this stage, fans of death metal and extreme prog metal might realise that this album probably is not one for them!).
Chagell Duet is about the most perfect musical accompaniment to a lazy, sleepy evening, and features at its core a lovely vocal performance (in French) by Sandrine Piau. That Anderson can match this operatic wonder in spades is testament to his own skills as a vocalist. A lovely track, this is a true highlight of the album, and one to play to your loved one over and again.
Run On, Jon features Mok again on piano accompanied by the orchestra, and is a nice track, although having the feel of filler written all over it, which is a shame, because a longer track on this theme would have been far preferable. View From The Coppice is of a similar vein, with the same participants, and at this stage, you know that an entire symphony or opera written by Anderson with these players would be a sheer wonder. These pieces of music are especially recommended for readers who appreciate very good classical music, and, of course, its essential link with symphonic rock.
Hurry Home is the longest track on the album, clocking in at just short of seven minutes long. It is more of a "traditional" Anderson song, stripped down to bare essentials, and is a love song encompassing his new wife Jane and the planet (never accuse Anderson of not being wide-ranging in his scope!). The orchestra sound wonderful backing a soaring voice, and you do recognise in the beautiful oboe some of the themes he would develop further in Toltec.
Under The Sun is quite similar in this theme, the fusion of new age musically and lyrically that abound in Anderson's solo career. It is pleasant but doesn't hold together as well as much of the rest of the album. It is almost as if he is trying to pack in a little bit too much in the time available. Having said that, his voice is wonderful when set against the orchestra at full cry.
So, to those "hits". I hope that I have described this album as being far more than the sum of these. Having said that, these tracks are a joy.
State of Independence is, if anything, far better than the original track from Friends of Mr Cairo, the orchestra giving it a far bolder and more expansive feel. Anderson sings quite marvellously.
Hearts is, perhaps, the biggest surprise. This track was a clear highlight of 90125, the first Yes album made with Trevor Rabin and the returning Tony Kaye. The original was considered as the most "proggy" on that fine album, but, if anything, this version brings it out even better. Smooth where the original could be slightly shrill, everything about it has been taken down a notch or two in its arrangement and performance, and doesn't suffer in the slightest - in fact, the chorus where The "Opio Singers" (Opio being the Foundation formed by Anderson) join him enhances and progresses the original. It is the most vocal of the tracks on the album, and the orchestra are deliberately understated. The track, therefore, becomes what Anderson possibly originally wanted - a vehicle for vocal harmony with subtle backing.
Candle Song is more like the original Jon & Vangelis composition. Quite lovely without being essential, it simply replaces Vangelis' keys with orchestra. Anderson, though, rarely has sounded better.
The best, though, is absolutely saved for last. Change We Must appeared on a reissued version of Page Of Life in the USA some three years after this album. Vangelis was not, it is rumoured, best happy. This, therefore, is the first studio version of this track, and I regard it as being classic, essential Anderson.
He has been accused many times, with good reason as well, of smothering his "hippy" world view in impenetrable lyrics, incomprehensible to all barring his immediate family and those on chemical assistance. Here, though, all is clear. His love of life, the planet, and a massively optimistic world view that we can change for the better is brought to life clearly and sharply. It is all, by the way, based upon the writings of Nana Veary, a Hawaiian spiritual teacher, and references the "Divine Mother" Audrey Kigawa you will have seen Anderson dedicate himself to on many latter Yes albums.
The lyrics, vocals, orchestration are simply incredible. Anderson takes himself to a plane that most vocalists simply dream of another dimension. The listener is simply swept away by the beauty of it all. This, to me, is, alongside the wondrous Turn Of The Century, the greatest track that Anderson has been responsible for, it is that good, and I will never tire of listening to it.
This is not a masterpiece, although, in its own little way, it comes very close to it. What it is is the sound of a vocalist, songwriter, producer, and arranger at the very top of his game. If you own no other Anderson solo record, then I would recommend this one, and I include the masterpiece Olias amongst this.
If there is one thing that links all the musicians who have played for Captain Bob in Crimson over the years, it is that they are all exceedingly clever. Trey Gunn is no exception, and his many talents are displayed very effectively on this, his debut solo album.
I bought this a while ago as a direct result of listening to Gunn's work on the Discipline label sampler (Sometimes God Hides), which was one of my earlier reviews. I'm glad that I did get this, because when you feel like listening to someone expressing himself utterly freely, without the pressure of big record label expectations, and experimenting as if his life depended upon it, then this album is for you.
Of course, there are obvious similarities between this album and his parent band. For a start, the word and sound eclectic screams out at you. In addition, I cannot believe that Fripp himself did not contribute on lead guitar, so similar are the passages to his work. He, nor, indeed, anyone else, is credited, though.
Trey Gunn is a master stick bass player, and it is this instrument that is at the heart of all the weird happenings and goings on in the album. The vocals provided by Serpentine to support Gunn are also highly worthy of mention. Together, they create an eerie soundscape.
Percussion also features largely in the album. Gunn's band mate, Pat Mastelotto, provides some superbly understated drum work on the outstanding Killing For London, blending perfectly with Gunn's stick to create a morbidly fascinating rhythm. Bob Muller provides the rest of the percussion work, and a very fine job he does as well.
This is not the type of album you will want to take your partner to dance to. Nor is it one that will have you marvelling at the symphonic atmosphere, which is wholly absent.
What it will do, though, when you are in the mood for such music, is have you fascinated and interested in how a set of ambient sounds can be mixed to set a wholly interesting and clever scene.
Rating this type of album is always difficult. It is very good, and, as I say, very clever. It is not, though, an album you will have in your disc player with any great frequency.
This is not just recommended for Crimson completionists, but also for those who love ambient, electronic, and eclectic music.
It is a little hard to believe that it has been a whole seventeen years since this, the last original studio release from The Floyd. I love this band but am an unashamed Waters fan. The great man himself described the predecessor album, Momentary Lapse of Reason, as a "passable copy" of Pink Floyd. This one he derided as pure rubbish.
Was he right? Well, no, not exactly. It is not pure rubbish by any means, but what it most certainly could be described as, one Richard Wright written track excepting (his first since Wish You Were Here), is a David Gilmour vehicle with Pink Floyd artists effectively acting as session musicians in support. The irony of this, I am sure, was not lost on their old protagonist, given that the excellent Final Cut was, equally effectively, a Waters solo vehicle with the rest in abject support.
It was a massive hit, with commercial and BBC radio utterly fawning over the whole project, helped along by the success of the single High Hopes and a strange sense, at the time, of nostalgia. The resultant tour was huge, with the band selling out massive arenas all over the world. It was also their swansong, and with Wright now sadly no longer with us, it will, I think, and hope, stay that way.
The playing throughout is exceptional, as one would rightly expect from such progressive titans. It is helped by Bob Ezrin's usual high standards of production, and I think credit should be given to Wright, who, since Animals, had been rather an abject figure both inside and outside the band. His contribution both on keyboards and, most welcome, on vocals on his track, Wearing The Inside Out, is brilliant, and it was a boon to us long standing fans to hear it. A nice jazzy track, with marvellous sax from long-time collaborator, Dick Parry, this perhaps should have appeared on a Wright solo effort, but it is a highlight of this album.
It is Wright’s work which saves the otherwise rather ordinary Poles Apart, for instance, from descending into mediocrity. As a swansong, he had much to be proud of.
The mood throughout the album is rather downbeat, but I do rather think that much of it is being done "by the numbers". Unlike the classic period from Meddle to The Wall, and even passages from Momentary Lapse, you never really get the feeling that there is any passion amongst the gloom. The solos by Gilmour are more than competent - it is David Gilmour after all, and he never played rubbish, but there is never a hair-raising moment amongst the proceedings. Neither is there a sense of the interesting experimentation you had with A New Machine or Terminal Frost on the predecessor. For example, here Marooned as an instrumental is merely slightly interesting, well played, and ideal as a background noise rather than challenging and thought provoking. On tracks such as this and the dour Keep Talking (Gilmour's worst moment, I think), Waters' bitter criticisms do ring true.
However, it is not all in that vein. A Great Day For Freedom is a genuine Floyd classic, reflecting Gilmour's and his soon to be wife, Polly Samson's (she co-wrote much of this album) more upbeat and less cynical political world view than the departed lyricist. Of course, one could also reflect that the lyrics also point towards the "Wall coming Down" as referring to the departure of Waters, or maybe it's just me being rather cynical.
High Hopes is a fun track, and deservedly a hit single.
However, overall, I find this a disappointment when compared to the mighty, essential, works that all concerned had been involved with over the years. As a Gilmour solo album, perhaps it would creep up to an excellent rating, but as Floyd? Never. If you rightly rate the four albums from Dark Side to The Wall as masterpieces, this simply isn't fit to lick their boots. It comes nowhere near.
It is a good album, but no more than that to me.
This review was written a number of years ago. It is fair to say that as I have grown older, and Waters has grown colder, my admiration for him has dissipated somewhat. I hugely admire the music, but the politics leave me cold. Therefore, take this review in that context.
Uploaded in 2022, but written many years before, this review of the 1994 Moonshine by Collage is uploaded with the news that we are awaiting a brand new album, their first since 1995. I can’t wait, because this was a fine album.
Some prog rock, it is true to say, is not altogether emotionally uplifting. Some of it can be downright depressing, and in the genre's first heyday of the 1970's, a lot of bands released exceptionally long suites and concepts that were musically, emotionally, and intellectually challenging. I say this not, of course, as a criticism, but as a matter of fact.
If we jump forward to the “neo prog” explosion, a lot of bands then seemed to have to issue albums that aped that style of music, if nothing else to prove their prog credentials. The better ones got over this tendency and began to create wholly original music and styles.
The above is stated to introduce this blinder of an album by Collage, a short-lived Polish band. Moonshine is an album which drips with relentless enthusiasm, is upbeat beyond belief, and very cleverly intersperses lengthy epics with some extraordinarily catchy prog pop shorter tracks. What they proved, above all else, is that the new prog did not simply have to be a copy of the classic bands to be effective, but basically took the best of what influenced them and turned it into something deliciously original. For that, this band deserve to be right up amongst great outfits such as Marillion and Pendragon as being amongst the best.
There is, in this album, more than a smattering of Marillion influence, certainly in the manner that the instrumental passages are constructed, and more than a bit of the Hogarth era at that, as well. Elsewhere, there are also the obligatory nods to classic artists, none more so than the longest track on the album, In Your Eyes, whose end vocal passage bears more than a passing resemblance to Gabriel's track of the same name from So. In addition, the band have clearly listened to the full quota of Camel's albums. In doing this, however, they never once sound like a cheap tribute band.
Robert Amirian's vocals are incredible throughout, and much of it, by the way, does also put you in mind of more than one post indie outfit. The chorus, and accompanying guitar burst, on Wings In The Night transports the listener to another plain.
The musicianship throughout is excellent. Palczewski's keyboard work is nothing short of phenomenal, Gil on guitar backs up Amirian's lead effortlessly, whilst the rhythm section of Szadkowski on drums and Witkowski on are about as tight and urgent as it is possible to get. For no better example of how well they play and riff as a unit, listen to the closing section of The Blues.
This is an excellent work, and the standard would be carried forward into successor outfit Satellite. Very highly recommended for all those who wish to explore prog outside of the UK comfort zone, and for prog fans in general who appreciate grand, upbeat, music with more than a hint of wider pop/rock sensibilities.