Tore's Treasure Trove v2.0 - Album Reviews!
 

Welcome weary forum traveller to my journal on music banter. If you wonder why it says v2, it's because my original journal was hard deleted and this is a remake of that thread. I had posted quite a few reviews on the old one and these have now been restored to working, reading order!

If you're new to this thread (or the old) and new to me, a quick introduction might be in place. I'm a norwegian in my late 20s and I think I have a somewhat flexible taste in music although I'll admit I seem to have a bias for bands and artists from 70s England. Anyways, this is where I review albums. Some I like and some I don't, but they all include something which I think is worth getting, even if it's just one song out of 20. These albums are rated on the strength of the whole thing, the finished product. The albums I love the most have a consistency about them, a red line perhaps from start to finish which completes them and makes them something more than just a collection of good tunes.

Because me and all other norwegians have a love for 6-sided die, I will use a rating system from 1 to 6. There is no neutral here, 3 and down are various gradients of bad while 4 to 6 means good and perhaps worth checking out.

In detail :

• 1/6 – Utter crap
• 2/6 – Bad, the bad outweighs the good if any
• 3/6 – Mediocre, good qualities are there but do not outweigh the bad
• 4/6 – Good, may be lacking but the good outweighs the bad
• 5/6 – Very Good, album has good and memorable tracks and few fillers
• 6/6 – Excellent album, good tracks and good consistency. A potential lifelong friend, this is the kind of album you might find yourself returning to for years to come.

That's it. Stand by for index!



Albums Reviewed Thus Far :

• Page 1
  • Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha (2008) ~ 3/6
  • Airbourne - Runnin' Wild (2007) ~ 5/6
  • Caravan - For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (1973) ~ 6/6
  • Kate Bush - The Kick Inside (1978) ~ 6/6

• Page 2
  • Squirrel Nut Zippers - Perennial Favorites (1998) ~ 5/6
  • Sisters of Mercy - Floodland (1987) ~ 4/6
  • Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1 (1995) ~ 3/6
  • Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction (1992) ~ 5/6
  • The Earl Scruggs Revue - Anniversary Special Vol.1 (1975) ~ 4/6

• Page 3
  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus (1971) ~ 5/6
  • Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998) ~ 5/6
  • Yes - Close to the Edge (1972) ~ 6/6
  • Madrugada - Industrial Silence (1999) ~ 4/6
  • Euroboys - Long Day's Flight 'Till Tomorrow (1999) ~ 5/6

• Page 4
  • Thulsa Doom - Keyboard, Oh Lord! Why Don't We? (2005) ~ 5/6
  • The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1975) ~ 5/6
  • Chick Corea / Return to Forever - Return to Forever (1972) ~ 6/6
  • Gentle Giant - Octopus (1972) ~ 6/6

• Page 5
  • Panzerpappa - Koralrevens Klagesang (2006) ~ 6/6
  • Spirit - The Family That Plays Together (1968) ~ 4/6
  • Kula Shaker - Strangefolk (2007) ~ 4/6

PS! If you have Spotify, you can click on the album's spotify link found under the track list to give it a listen for free (when applicable).

PPS! Reviews from Kula Shaker's Strangefolk and on may have footnotes. These are pointed to with the following symbols : *, †, ‡, §, ‖, ¶

Reading Tip : I'll be the first to admit my reviews can get rather lengthy. If you're not specifically interested in the album, you can cut down your reading time by reading the introductions and the summaries. I try to organize my reviews so that it's easy to find the information you're after without reading the whole thing.

Of course, comments are appreciated and if you wanna find out more about any of these albums, just send me a PM! ;)

Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha (2008)
 

Introduction

Members : Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey, Mick Quinn, Rob Coombes

First, a little info about the band is in order. Supergrass is one of the many bands to come out of the 90s britpop era. On their debut album I Should Coco from 1995, they carved out their own niche in music history with fast punk-inspired pop rock that sounded like youth distilled, concentrated and put on a record. Their sound has changed subsequently with each album and as a result, they are removing themselves more and more away from their upbeat and playful debut record. Supergrass last before this one, Road to Rouen, reflected a rough period for the band as the Coombes brothers mother died and drummer Danny had some kind of tabloid ordeal. I was curious to see where Diamond Hoo Ha would take them ..


Detailed Review

Supergrass are again exploring new ground with their sixth album, leaving behind much of their punk and pop influenced beginnings and adopting a dirtier rock sound comparable to contemporaries like The Raconteurs. The album opens strong with a vulgar, dirty guitar riff on song Diamond Hoo Ha Man. For old fans, this track might be a little hard on the first try, but with a couple of more listenings, it should become an album favourite. Gaz's vocals combined with the rather randy guitar gives you the impression the boys are trying to make love to your earhole.

When the sun goes down .. I just can't resist .. BITE ME!

It's reasonably kickass and likely the best song on the album!



The beat-steady second song is a little catchier. Bad Blood continues much in the same vein as the first, but it's sound is a little more accessible with a nice melancholic refrain. The overall impression is positive and this one is also a good contender for the album's best song. On Rebel In You, the album gets a little cuter. It sounds like a love song with some nice, poppy backing vocals. It's a bit weaker than the other two, I think, but still a nice track. Definetly one of the stronger songs on the album.

Steady piano beat song When I Needed You is a nice melodic, melancholic tune. It's not as noticeable as the first three, but I think this might be the kind of tune you'll return to when you've played the attraction out of the other strong songs on the album. 345 speeds the album up again with an interesting, noisy guitar riff - quite an unconventional one for pop-rock. It also has some of the attitude from the first two tracks. Also one of the strongest songs on the record.

We're about halfway through and so far, so good.

Return to Inspiration sounds like the album's first filler to me. It doesn't exactly sound bad, but aside from a dreamy refrain, it brings little new to the table. Rough Knuckles is perhaps the best track on the second half of the album. As you will soon see, that's not saying an awful lot. This one is also stylistically similar to the earlier songs, but it doesn't quite have the attitude.

Ghost of a Friend .. Eew, I don't like much. It's a melodic song with acoustic guitar and steady beat, but the only thing I really like about it sounds like it was stolen from Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone .. Not a fan!

Alright, let's make this quick. Whisky & Green Tea, Outside and Butterfly all sound like fillers to me. They're not really adding much to the album, except some strange backing vocals and saxophone on Whisky & Green Tea (which is never heard before on a Supergrass song as far as I know). They're not really bad either, but it makes the album feel like it's dying a repetitive, slow death as it nears it's end .. None of them are interesting enough to contend with the stronger material of the first half.


Review Summary

So what do we have here? On Diamond Hoo Ha, it's appearant the boys have left behind the sadder days of Road to Rouen. The first half of the album is good, I think, and deserves a reasonably good score (4). The second half of the album, however, is nowhere as charming and gets repetitive (3). There were fillers on the earlier Supergrass albums too, but they still had that unique Supergrass sound. Now that the magical concoction is being diluted more and more all over the album, the weakest tracks offer little to interest me.

I'll add that I don't think the strong songs on the album can at all hope to measure up to the strong songs from the earlier albums. None of them suck you in like I Should Coco song Time. None of them have the energy of In it for the money track Richard III. None of them are as downright awesome as Supergrass (their eponymous 3rd album) track Mary. So that's it. At best they are good songs, but not awesome.

If I was to rank the Supergrass albums, I'd do it like this.

1. Supergrass (1999)
2. In it for the Money (1997)
3. I Should Coco (1995)
4. Life On Other Planets (2002)
5. Road to Rouen (2005)
6. Diamond Hoo Ha (2008) <-- So, there it is

It's the bottom of the pile.

I'd still recommend the first half of the album to new listeners and old, but - if you are a new listener, you might as well take a look at the albums on the top of my list first. As for me, I feel slightly disappointed overall. Supergrass is one of the few bands in this genre I've had real interest in and it saddens me a bit that they seem to move away from what it is I liked about them. As you can see, their latest 3 are all at the bottom for me, so now I'll officially stop with the expecations.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove rating : 3/6 - The first half is good, but the last half pulls it down at least a point.

Airbourne - Runnin' Wild (2007)
 

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Introduction

members : Joel O'Keeffe, Ryan O'Keeffe, David Roads, Justin Street

I read somewhere that the O'Keeffe brothers had gotten their old uncle's rock and roll records in with their breastmilk when they were kids. That must've been some awesome records - and some hot sauce in those tits too - cause these guys ****ing rock - hard. Like their musical forefathers (obviously AC/DC), Airbourne is a hard rock band from Australia and although they've been making songs for a few years and gained an ever-growing following for their pub rock sound, they didn't release their debut until 2007 in Australia and 2008 for the rest of us. Get ready to get your ass kicked!


Album review

Damn! Listening to Airbourne's debut is like getting punched in the ear with the fist of rock & roll and it hurts - only in a good way. You know? The opener, Stand up for Rock 'N' Roll opens with a riff that sounds like you just put on a Megadeth or some other metal band album. However, after a little suspension buildup, the song reaches a climax and the hard rock sound punches through and hits you straight in the face. Awesome! Then it keeps climaxing for the rest of the song. I haven't heard anything this genuine in a long time. These guys are the real deal - and they sound like it. This track was (unsurprisingly) the first I ever heard of Airbourne and it blew me away right from the start. It's a true beer drinking, ass-kickin' Rock & Roll anthem and a powerful opener on a what sounds like a great debut record.

The second track, Runnin' Wild just continues the goodness. The vocals are harsh, gritty, the beat is steady and the guitar sounds raw and the riffs are dirty. This is true headbanger's music. Another awesome track.

Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast, Diamond in the Rough, Fat City and onwards, they all continue much in the same vein as the first couple of songs. It's all ass-kickin, riff-based hard rock and the quality is high. I don't think there's a single weak track on this album.

The lyrical themes are right where they should be. From "Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast" :

Too much, Too young, Too fast
I'm gonna drink it up while it lasts
Too much, Too young, Too fast
I'm gonna tear it up so fill my glass

Clearly something youthful people in all ages can relate to. Awesome!


Review Summary

So what do we have here? Aside from possibly last or this year's strongest debut (depending on where you are) and a good contender for most testosterone put on a record, Runnin' Wild is one helluva rock album. It takes the oldschool sound and attitude of AC/DC and mixes it with the best from modern production and youthful energy. If you like AC/DC, you cannot help but like Airbourne's sound. The first time I put it on, my girlfriend actually thought I'd put on an AC/DC record (the old guys should be proud - or they should perhaps call their lawyers). Anyways, while there are no weak tracks, the songs lack variation (which is why I skipped doing a detailed track-by-track review). However, I think for an album like this, most people won't mind at all. They'll probably be getting drunk.

So - if you have your friends over for beer one day, put this on. They will thank you. Strongly recommended for everyone who still likes their rock music with balls!


Toretorden's Treasure Trove rating : 5/6


I'm looking forward to hear how Black Ice compares to this. :)

Oh, and if someone in Oslo could get them for a concert, that would make me happy!

Introduction

Members on this album : Pye Hastings, Geoff Richardson, David Sinclair, John G. Perry, Richard Coughlan

Caravan is a (still active) prog-rock band from the Canterbury area and were part of the canterbury scene along with contemporaries like Soft Machine. Unlike some of their contemporaries who often moved in a more jazzy improvisational direction, Caravan eventually pursued a more good-natured pop-rock sound that sometimes had slightly naive or silly lyrical themes.

They released a well-recieved eponymous debut album in 1968 which was followed up by more well-recieved album "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" (1970, awesome title by the way) which was followed up by even more well recieved and critically acclaimed classic "In the Land of Grey and Pink" (1971). After the third album, then-keyboardist David Sinclair left the group and was replaced with Steve Miller .. Then they released another album, Waterloo Lily, but it did not recieve so well with fans and critics as their previous albums. Ouch. Anyways, to make a long story short, the band was broken up leaving only Hastings and Coughlan who recruited some new names and after a while, David Sinclair returned to the band.

I hope I'm not boring you this early on with facts. You can read about it on Wikipedia if you wanna know all the details. Anyways, Sinclair leaves -> slightly disappointing 4th album - Sinclair comes back -> ... what happens then? Why, they make the album "For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night" of course!


Album Review

"So is it good?!" you wonder, probing at the feelings of suspense and wonder I left you with in my introduction. "Patience man! You can't just dive head-first into an album like this. Now, let us start with the first track" ...

Memory Lain opens the album with a solid, catchy guitar riff - bass and hats come in, followed by drums after a couple more turns on the riff and WHAM! Harmonius, playful vocals enter and the magic that is Caravan opens up and sucks you in, lulling you with soft rock goodness. Wow! After a couple of goes at a wonderful refrain, the song softens up with a lovely part on the flute before it heads into an instrumental jam on the same theme. Everything is so catchy, dreamy, perfect - you can't help but get sucked in. After a while, the song slows down again and a probing, haunting flute finds it's way into the music and steers it down a new path. A steady beat picks up until eventually, the song starts breaking up again. But not for long.

Suddenly, the drums and guitar kicks off again in perfect sync in what must be Headloss. The rock & roll riff will send shivers down your spine and the vocals are are right back again in what sounds like a real feelgood rock tune.

"I got my pipe and I got my song - and I got love to keep me happy"

After some rounds of this, the song kicks off into it's final jam and finally ends at a little more than 9 thrilling minutes of great music. I hope I'm able to convey some of the love and wonder I have for this song. The moment I heard it, I knew I liked it and the replayability is tremendous. It feels like it grows on me a little more everytime I hear it, making me more and more fond of this album.


Next song, Hoedown also kicks off with a solid riff in what is one of the "rockier" songs on the album. However, being the shortest song on the album, it soon hands things over to Surprise, Surprise, Surprise which is another absolutely wonderful song, a bit poppier than the first two tracks with some absolutely lovely backing vocals and lyrics that contains words like "sunshine" and "love". Associations in my head is walking in the sun a summerday, being young and in love. If what I write sounds tacky, then I'm sorry - don't take it out on the song. It is awesome.

The sweetness dies away a little with scary-themed C'thulu Thulu (Cthulhu fthagn!) song, but instead of breaking up the so-far sweet theme of the album, it's playful style and humorous refrain makes it more like a humorous anekdote about something spooky that happened one day. Now and then, it surprises you with a raw guitar sound (relative to whatever else on this album) and jams out ..

The next song is The Dog, The Dog, He's At It Again. Oh my. Oh .. wow. This joyful song with the most harmonius vocals so far should hit you right in the heart. If you say you don't like this song, well - I just don't believe you. Of course, it continues the sweet, feelgood theme of the album. A jam in the middle shakes things up a little and makes you long for the vocal verses once again and when they return, it feels oh-so satisfying. I'll add that the song has some very playful, fun and interesting lyrics. Supposedly, Pye wrote this song as an ode to blowjobs or something along those lines.

My mother said that I should stay out of bed,
But I know that I like it in there
Legs and thighs, hellos and goodbyes
It's all there
Oh-o-o-o-o-oo
Oh-o-oo
Oh my, oh

So please - sit back, relax and enjoy this song in it's entirety.

Next track, Be Alright / Chance of a Lifetime ups the pace again in a more beat-steady rock tune with some skillfull solo-guitar and orchestral arrangement that are perfectly mixed, keeping it in line with the rest of the album. However, when it makes it's slide into the Chance of a Lifetime theme, we're onto new ground . The song slows down and is takes the shape of a kind of slow-jazzy bossa nova. In my mind's eye, the warm music conjures up pictures of white beaches and blue waves as the song jams, hits a new verse and then slowly breaks to a halt, leaving the stage for the album's last song.

Last track opens with acoustic guitar and some wonderful violin in a theme similar to Chance of a Lifetime before it kicks into a beat-steady prog-instrumental piece A Hunting We Shall Go. The next theme is another haunting instrumental part dominated by piano at first, then strings and clarinet. It picks up towards the end with more horns and strings adding to the sound, making it sound more or less like a pure orchestral piece - growing more and more pompous. Within the song's last minute, the rock riff from earlier comes back in with the orchestra for a final showoff before the album ends abruptly in what sounds like a thunder .. the album has reached it's inevitable end. Sigh.

Now, if you are fortunate and have the bonus songs, you might hear what sounds like "memory lain" starting up again. Oh joy! If you don't have them, putting the album on repeat will suffice.


Review summary

While Airborne's last album will pick you up, throw you on to the table and have rough sex with your eardrums, Caravan's "For Girls who grow plump in the night" will seduce you, make you fall in love with it, make sweet lovin' to your soft and ravaged little ears and make you beg for more in the morning. This is some of the most seductive rock-music I've ever heard. It may take a few listens to really get into it, but it's not hard. The first time I heard it, I was like "Wow! This is a good album!" A couple of listens later, I was like "Someone get me a glass of water. Drooling hydrates me. Dear Caravan, thank you for making sweet love to my ears. Will you please do it again? Aaahh". This has rapidly become my favourite album these days and I'm sorry for all the comparisons between sex and listening to music, but if you were me, you'd understand.

It's also a real "feelgood"-album, more so than the previous albums I've heard from them .. more so than any other prog-rock album I've heard, at least so far. That, to me, makes it a little extra special. It's an album for the good times in your life - or - as is my case right now, remembering them (Well - I've been working a lot the last few days). Where I am right now - in the polarnight where it's dark and cold 24/7, I sincerely appreciate it.

So what can I say? Unless you already have it or your taste in music is narrower than a mite's arsehole, you need to get this album. If you do get it, bear in mind that this album may not be appropriate any time of any day. It may not be appropriate for a night's beer-drinking with your bachelor friends, but you could possibly listen to it when you're driving your car in the summer with the top down (the roof, I mean). If you have a long bussride to get through, you could put this album on your iPod and let yourself slip down into the warm and seductive sounds of Caravan .. (It also works when you're out walking in -20 below and strong gale winds as long as you cover your head properly.)

So how do I rate this sly sucker? My heart tells me to give it a 6, but I'm in a vulnerable state right now - like I'm in love and I can't think straight. I need to think with my head and not with my heart. Can I trust Caravan? Maybe they're taking take advantage of me?! ...


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 6/6


All good tracks combined with the way they all add to the outstanding wholeness of the album deserves, right now, a 6 - I think. If you find the time, try listening to it in it's entirety. You will see what I mean.

Airborne *shudder* :p:

Good to see you get another journal up n going mate, hopefully it is as fruitful as the previous.

Haha, I liked it as I was writing it and forgot about it later. Although my feelings about some of the albums may have changed a little since I wrote the reviews, I've decided to leave the original scores. I did like the album after all and when I rated it, I disregarded the fact all their songs sound like stolen property from a certain other band. If you are able to distance yourself from the obvious rip-off, I think they're good, although perhaps a 4 today and not a 5. :p:

Hehe, some classy song titles. I actually laughed out loud loud when I read "Cheap Wine and Cheaper women" ^

Kate Bush - The Kick Inside (1978)
 

Introduction

Me and Kate go a relatively long way back. The first time I noticed her was when me and a mate was at a nachspiel (after-party) at another one of my female friend's place. I was sitting on the couch while her overly drunk boyfriend was feeding me cold rice-stew with a ladle. And we were listening to Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, although I didn't know it was her at the time. The song made a lingering impression, but the next morning at the pub, I couldn't remember who the artist was .. Somehow I rediscovered her some time later, could've been a year or two - I don't remember exactly when or how it happened. At first, I wasn't quite sure wether I thought her unique voice was truly beautiful or just strange, but I was intrigued. When I downloaded some of her music videos, the weirdness of Kate Bush really opened up to me. The girl seemed utterly crazy with her sometimes squeaky voice, wild eyes and often not-so-graceful dance moves, but somehow I found it all immensely and strangely appealing. Mesmerizing almost! I quickly became a fan of her very early works and I even bought a T-Shirt. Some of my friends still tease me about it (the bastards) .. However, that is now a while ago now and my relationship with Kate has sobered up a bit since then ..

So who is Kate Bush? Well, when she was little, she studied the violin and the piano. She also quickly started writing her own songs and was a bit of a prodigy. In her early teens, she was discovered by none other than David Gilmour. With his influence and recommendations, she signed a contract with EMI at a mere 16 years of age. She would spend the time between the contract and her debut album writing more than 200 songs as well as getting dancing lessons and finishing school. According to Kate Bush, recording her own album was a childhood dream and The Kick Inside supposedly contains songwriting material that she wrote all the way down to 12 years of age. The album was released when she was 19 and spawned several singles. With Wuthering Heights, she became the first female UK artist to reach Nr. 1 on the charts, immediately catapulting her into stardom. As her musical career developed, she became a shy celebrity who preferred to do her own stuff without being a public figure. As a result, over time she somewhat removed herself from the mainstream appeal of her first albums.


Album review

The two first tracks, Moving and The Saxophone Song are beautiful, fragile, feminine and sometimes haunting songs. Both are among my favourites and a great way to start off such a strong album. Strange Phenomena (which is appearantly about menstruation) and particularly Kite lightens the mood of the album with a more playful, youthful and in the latter, whimsical sound at times. Kite also features Kate Bush doing very extensive backing vocals in her own song, much to the listeners pleasure. The Man With The Child in his Eyes is another fragile and beautiful song written by her at the age of 16. The recording of the song was done under the supervision of David Gilmour and it's also the second single from this album. As such, they made a music video for it that you can watch below!




This very strong song is immediately followed up by her first single from the album and possibly Kate Bush's most famous song ever, Wuthering Heights. As I wrote earlier, it was the first single by a female artist to reach nr. 1 in the UK, making it a historical and unique pop song. Although I've heard it hundreds of times, it still has great replay value and I think it's a quite hard song not to like. The lyrics are obviously inspired by Emily Bronte's book by the same name in which the ghost of Kathy is standing outside Heathcliff's window .. The video does a good job of showcasing everything that is strange and at the same time appealing about Kate. Enjoy!




After Wuthering Heights, we enter the second half of the album. While not as strong as the first, there are still good songs. Feel it, although it sounds like a melancholic love song dominated by Kate's voice and her piano, sounds like it might be about sex. Oh, to be in Love is another fun track that has male backing vocals in the chorus and Them Heavy People is another whimsical tune about realising your potential .. I think. The album inevitably finishes with the title track The Kick Inside which is an absolutely lovely song and definetly one of my favourites from this album.


Review Summary

So why should you want to listen to this album? For one, it is a well-produced album with some wonderful songs by a an incredible artist. Secondly, it is truly unique and a collector's item for any person who is half-serious about his music collection. When they discovered Kate Bush as a teenager, they realised her potential and instead of forcing her talent, they nurtured it and gave it time to grow. When she bloomed, The Kick Inside was the first fruit of many from Kate Bush and for me, it is by far the sweetest. Producer Andy Powell has done a great job lifting and showcasing this teenage girl's amazing talent and the album feels like it captures her essence at that time. It's unspoiled, youthful, amazingly creative for a pop record and often quite feminine and innocent despite some lush orchestral arrangements now and then. Kate quickly matured after her debut and so some of the qualities of this record are quickly lost, leaving an overall feeling of fragile beauty when seen in the larger perspective from her discography.

I think this album has two ratings. If you know nothing about Kate Bush and only listen to it, I'd say it's a very good album and I would give it a 5/6. However, if you can appreciate it's amazing history and where it comes from, feelings of awe may haunt you at every track and quickly turn it into an excellent album. Since these reviews are all about my opinions and what I feel, I give it ..


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score 6/6

Favourite tracks Moving, The Saxophone Song, Kite, The Man With the Child in his Eyes, Wuthering Heights, The Kick Inside.


For such an album to come from a girl in her teenage years is nothing short of amazing. The Kick Inside makes Kate Bush an inspiration for every young artist out there.

Kate Bush :love: what else do I have to say?

Her debut is one of those albums that have stayed with me for so many years now and I definetly have a very sentimental relationship with it. Not everyone will find listening to it as rewarding as I do of course, but those who think they like what they hear in those youtube vids or get curious from reading her story should definetly check her out!

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Perennial Favorites (1998)
 

Introduction :

Members on this album : James Mathus, Tom Maxwell, Katharine Whalen, Ken Mosher, Chris Phillips, Stuart Cole, Don Raleigh, Je Widenhouse (+ Andrew Bird as honorary member). James Mathus and Katharine Whalen (husband and wife) do the bulk of the vocals.

Squirrel Nut Zippers (named after a candy) formed in 1993 and is based in North Carolina. Although they play a mixture of styles and draw on many different influences, they are regarded as one of the bigger bands in the Swing Revival movement for their various takes on big-band-ish 1920s and 1930s sounding swing jazz. Their first album, The Inevitable, was released in 1995. After their debut, they released an album a year until in 1998 when they released their fourth album, Perennial Favorites.

The Swing Revival scene is riddled with bands of varying quality. Many seem mix nostalgia with modern influences and often a slightly parodic feeling. Squirrel Nut Zippers were never happy about being associated with that lot (they were certainly more than just swing) and come across as a bit more genuine and more varied than most of their hipster revival contemporaries such as Brian Setzer Orchestra and Cherry Poppin' Daddies. While it certainly sounds like they have a lot of fun with their works, you get the impression the music they make not only adheres to styles they like, but also their way of life.

I discovered Squirrel Nut Zippers just after the release of Perennial Favorites and I was very much looking forward to their sixth (and final) album Bedlam Ballroom. Still, after having made myself familiar with most of their work, in my opinion - their fourth album still stands a head and possibly a shoulder above the rest.


Song for Song Review :

While most of the songs on the album could be said to have a touch of swing jazz, the different songs draw from a range of influences and every song sounds different from the others. The album opens with the classic Suits are picking up the bill. Jim Mathus sings a somewhat cryptic but upbeat commentary on capitalism. The song is fun and catchy - definetly a good start! The next song slows things down a bit with a wonderful little intro on the piano before it opens up to you. Low Down Man is a beautiful, melancholic, country-bluesy ballad carried well by Katharine Whalen's wonderful vocals and a haunting steel pedal guitar. This is my girlfriend's all-time favourite SNZ track. The third track, Ghost of Stephen Foster opens up with Andrew Bird playing an eerie, suspense building intro on his violin before things suddenly spiral into a crazy, slightly eastern european sounding polkaish jazz with shouting chorus and a lot of hoompf!. The lyrics are cryptic but seem to deal with a meeting with the ghost of Stephen Foster and the things the ghost says.

If we were made of cellophane, we'd all get stinking drunk much faster, hahaha!

Enjoy the video if you want.

.


Pallin' With Al is another upbeat song with a lot of violin and is certainly another potential album favourite. Fat Cat Keeps Getting Faster, a fast jazz-duet between Jimbo and his wife Katharine and Trou Macacq are are not among my favourite tracks on the album, but they're still good songs. My Drag is another intriguing, melancholic lament by Katharine Whalen which might just be about recurring depression. Soon brings back the hoompf! and sounds like a somewhat paranoid song about portents and bad omens. It includes quite a bit of shouting and some rather memorable lyrics

.. But if you draw a bow, draw the strongest! - Yeeahh!! - And if you use an arrow, use the longest! - OH YEAH!

Great stuff!

Evening at Lafittes is, for me, the album's brightest gem. It is my all-time faovurite SNZ song. I'm a bit scared of writing about it because I'm not sure how to describe this song to people who have not heard it before. It's a relatively uncomplicated song about a place called Lafittes, a great place for dancing and romancing. Katharine Whalen does wonderful, jazzy vocals and you can dance to it, especially if you have a partner. I don't think I want to say much more about it except - if you're only gonna listen to one song from this album, give this one a shot.

The Kraken is an intriguing, unpredictable song and differs quite a lot from the rest of the album with it's quirky weirdness. It's humpty-dumpty almost comical first half eventually gives way to the most haunting vocals on the album, a love song sung by the Kraken (aka Katharine). Being a norwegian, the Kraken is one of my favourite monsters, and I find the romantic take on the old squid to be quite intriguing - and a little captivating. Good song and a great curiosity!

That Fascinating Thing is a vulgar-bluesy-sounding jazz song and - one of the weaker tracks on the album, if not the weakest. It has it's moments, but it pales compared to the quality of the rest. It's Over is just that, a short song announcing the album's end.


Review Summary :

Perennial Favorites, although it has a couple of weak tracks, is an awesome and varied album. It has big band, polka, country, blues, eastern european, harlem, etc etc influences and I find it makes it quite hard to accurately describe this album to someone who has not yet listened to it. Lumping it in as another album from the hipster Swing Revival crowd does not do it justice. If you've read through the review up to here, I hope I've at least managed to make you curious enough to get your hands on this album. I think it's the finest they ever made and worthy a spot in anyone's collection.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6

Favourite tracks : Suits Are Picking up the Bill, Low Down Man, Ghost of Stephen Foster, Pallin' With Al, My Drag, Evening at Lafittes

Sisters of Mercy - Floodland (1987)
 

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Introduction :

Leeds rock band Sisters of Mercy rose to fame in the goth underground of the 80s and gained a strong cult following despite their attempts to discourage any associations with the goth culture. Their music is often gloomy, industrial, occasionally pompous and often danceable. Frontman Andrew Eldritch's deep and, shall we say - unusual voice - adds to their uniqueness and makes them very recognizable. He's probably not an easy man to get along with either. Andrew, Godfather of Goth, is the only permanent member of the band and aside from compilations, they released 3 albums, all with different line-ups. After their first album, First and Last and Always from 1985, everyone except Andrew and the drum machine Doktor Avalanche, left the band. Eldritch's deteriorating mental health is cited by band members as one of the reasons for the split. The ex-members started a new group, The Sisterhood, causing Andrew Eldritch to file a lawsuit against them because of the name, a lawsuit which he won and the ex-sisters eventually became known as The Mission.

Anyways, this is about Sisters of Mercy. After being left by his bandmates, Andrew Eldritch recruited tall-haired goth-icon Patricia Morrison on bass and recorded The Sisters of Mercy's second album, Floodland, in 1987.


Song for Song Review :

The album opens with the slightly epic track Dominion/Mother Russia, a classic in the Sisters catalogue. It's a neverending, pompous, beat-steady, catchy and a bit gloomy rock classic and showcase what I consider the trademark Sisters of Mercy sound. Andrew Eldritch's singing works quite well on this song and it's a good opener, one of the many from this album considered a classic by fans. Note that the video, both for this song and the others are not the same versions as are on this album. The album versions are, among other things, much longer.




Flood I continues the gloom and the industrial beat-steady feel, but loses some of the drive and charm of the opening track. It is heavily dominated by synth and drum machine and has quite a lot atmosphere. This song would fit right into some late 80s/early 90s goth movie where children of the night dance in some San Fransiscan goth club. However, it also comes across as a bit of a filler for me. When the track reaches it's end, the heavy, hard-hitting and steady drum and bass of Lucretia My Reflection comes on. Lucretia is, without a doubt, my favourite song on the album, possibly my favourite sisters song ever. It's as hard-hitting as a locomotive and it's heavy, unstoppable, industrial feel and energy is mixed with the best qualities of Andrew Eldritch's voice for a memorable result. Check out the cheesy video if you want.




I quite like the lyrics too although I've no clear idea what they're about.

I hear the roar of a big machine
Two worlds and in between
Love lost, fire at will
Dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill, I hear
Dive, bombers, and
Empire down

The next song, 1959, is an emotional piano ballad by Mr. Eldritch. For me, it is a song that has almost none of the Sisters charm and it mixes that with the worst qualities of Andrew's voice. As was written in a review in noted pop magazine Smash Hits, Andrew's singing on the piano track sounded like a goblin being sick in a bucket. Although that's a bit exaggerated, I can see where the reviewer is coming from. Still, it's not a horrible song, just not good. However, Floodland quickly redeems itself with the next track This Corrosion that opens up with a frankly awesome(!) bit of choir before the trademark sisters of mercy industrial sound comes back, tinged with some playful, lighter guitar notes. Like the opener, this track is pompous as hell, endless and driven. Another classic song from the sisters catalogue. It also has a cheesy music video, here presented in ****ty quality.

.


Flood II is another excellent song. It has everything you should expect from the Sisters sound and Andrew's performance on this track is full of emotion. The acoustic guitar here is nice touch and the track is melodic, slightly desperate and with what I think is a subtle hint of romance and beauty. I also like the song's lyrics.

Like a million voices call my name
Like a million voices calling
Not now, not never again...
Sitting here now in this bar for hours
Strange men rent strange flowers
Seconds to the drop but it feels like hours and I
Think I'm going to...going to...

If this isn't goth rock, I don't know what is.

Driven Like the Snow continues a bit in the same vein as the previous track, also with acoustic guitar, which is just fine with me. It has the beats, the bass and the driving quality of most Sister classics, but comes across as relatively soft. It also has some memorable lyrics. Never Land is the album's shortest song and marks the end of the album .. unless you have the bonus tracks which I've decided to leave out. It's heavy, slow, atmospheric and again sounds like it should be on the soundtrack for some gloomy goth movie. The fact that it's short and quickly fades out makes it a good track to end an album with, but maybe not something you wanna put on your all-time favourite sisters mix-tape.


Review Summary :

I like Sisters of Mercy and as Andrew himself has said, Floodland is a fine album, but I think that it's sound will probably be a little hard to get into for newer and younger audiences. Andrew Eldritch is not a very good singer and the songs have a machine-like tendency to drone on and get a bit repetitive. My guess is that if you don't like it, you will soon hate it if you force yourself. However, if you do like it and are able to get into this album, you may find that although Andrew's voice is not beautiful, aside from a touch of goblin, works very well with this particular sound and the sometimes repetitive quality of the songs only make them better. I also like the songs gloomy themes and lyrics. The album has perhaps a filler or two or three, but when it's good - it's awesome - and so the album's overall impression is good. It's easy to imagine this album's gems being played in 80/90's goth clubs. Actually, they're probably still played - at least if goth club-goers have any integrity. If you wanna know what true goth rock sound sounds like, you should get your hands on Floodland.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 4/6

Favourite tracks : Dominion/Mother Russia, Lucretia My Reflection, This Corrosion, Flood II, Driven Like the Snow

Ah, the Sisters Of Mercy! Not only the name of a sublime Leonard Cohen song, but a name that's been recommended to me for years now (by some geezer I used to know who, incidentally, told me he was a mate of Martin Degville's from Sigue Sigue Sputnik). I've definitely come across that Lucretia song before as well - wasn't it sent in to one of the MB comps a while back? They're a name that's been on my radar for a while then but, like a lot of others, one I haven't looked into just yet.

Cracking write-up anyway. Good thread too.

That review would've been really helpful two months ago. There was a Sister of Mercy concert in here, but I didn't know anything about them so I didn't go. I researched them, but it was hard to see from where to begin. Anyway, great review!

Thanks a lot! I believe I did enter the Lucretia song into one of the comps, but I can't remember which one. I've often put stuff I've reviewed in those. :p:

While Floodland is my favourite album, their other stuff isn't all bad either. Their debut is brilliant, especially the title track. Vision thing which was their third is not as good, but it does have some redeeming qualities. The song "more" is rather good from that one, I think. The first time I heard about the sisters was sometime back in the 90s and the song that got me interested in the group was "temple of love" which featured guest singer Ofra Haza. I found the video on youtube, though it's highly edited from an 8+ minutes song into a 3 minutes one.



Begin with their debut or Floodland! :)

This review was actually here two months ago .. My old journal which had this review in it was hard deleted a month ago, so this is an old writeup. :p:

The review was here, I wasn't :P

Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1 (1995)
 

Oh right, knew you were new actually :) Anyways, here's my next review ..

Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1 (1995)

Introduction :

Members : Brian Eno, Paul Hewson (Bono), David Howell Evans (The Edge), Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen & guest singer Luciano Pavarotti

Passengers is the name of a collaboration project between Brian Eno and the members of U2. Neither artist nor group should need an introduction, but if you for some reason haven't heard about them, Brian Eno rose to fame first and foremost with the band Roxy Music. He's sometimes called the father of ambient music had a successful solo career as well as numerous (and I mean numerous) collaborations with other artists over the years. U2 with leadman Paul Hewson, stage name Bono, is a four-man pop-rock monster band that came out of Dublin in the early 1980s. They are frequently found on the charts.

The passengers collaboration has so far only released one album, Original Soundtracks 1. It is a highly experimental album of concept songs where every song belongs in the soundtrack of a movie. Some of these movies are real, but most are imaginary, though complete with fictious descriptions in the album sleeve. Original Soundtracks 1 produced one hit, Miss Sarajevo, which features vocals by the somewhat recently diseased Luciano Pavarotti, world renowned italian tenor. Larry Mullen, U2's drummer, openly dislikes this album and says that it's self-indulgent. Bono jokingly says it's because they didn't let him play the drums.


Song for Song Review :

The album starts off with the strange United Colours. It's a instrumental song with a lot of synth and various pseudoalien noises. There's a steady conventional beat and an industrial feel. The song is not very melodic and some of the sounds are almost ugly. Still, the overall impression is enjoyable. It's not a great song, but it's different and should make you curious enough to check out the next couple of tracks. Both Slug and Your Blue Room inherit some of the sound of Brian Eno's more relaxed works (sometimes in collaborations) with added vocals by Bono. Both tracks are mellow and enjoyable, particularly Your Blue Room which is one of the gems from this album. Always Forever Now is a weird drum and base synth thing that has a drive behind it. It ends up with a vocal part repeating the title of the song over and over again. It's a bit weird, slightly more good than bad, but not anything to be excited about. A Different Kind of Blue is just some pretentious dribble that would never work outside this album, but is thankfully rather short. More soothing sounds follow on the Beach Sequence, a rather enjoyable piano piece. When that's over, it's time for the album's star, Miss Sarajevo. This is the only song that qualifies for the pop label on the album and I think it's a good one. Like many of the other songs on the first half, it is soothing and warm and combines the strength of both Brian Eno and U2, particularly Bono's singing. Luciano Pavarotti's contribution, while slightly cheesy, adds to the song and it just works for me without being over the top. The song charted in Norway when this album came out. There's a video which I would post here had I found it on youtube .. Oh well.

Ito Okashi (which means Something Beautiful, I think) is a bunch of random tinkly sounds and some strange japanese vocals following a melody which is not immediately coherent. It's not awful, but it doesn't entirely work as a song. Overall impression is self-indulgent and somewhat pretentious. One Minute Warning is another minor gem and was made for the anime movie Ghost in the Shell that you might be familiar with. The song has a rather good, steady beat and a lot of tin-cannish distorted vocals that are impossible to make out. Associations of grinding metal and vast metallic space and acoustics add to that robotic feeling. Not a classic, but an interesting song and that I think manages everything it attempts. Corpse and Elvis Ate America with Bono singing go for a trip back to self-indulgent land and are frankly boring. Plot 180 is a repetitive, boring Eno-esque piece who's only strength is that it sounds a bit like it could be background music for something out of Shadowrun. Theme from the Swan are more boring drawn out sounds and Theme From Let's Go Native's return to a steady beat is refreshing, but ultimately sounds too much like background music to interest anyone. Sorry for not being very descriptive, but most of these songs are just not worth your time.


Review Summary :

First of all, let's establish that this is not a U2 album. If anything, it sounds much more like Brian Eno's earlier works. Furthermore, Larry Mullen is right when he says the album is not just experimental, but downright self-indulgent. The last half contains some of the most pretentious music I think I've ever heard. However, it's not all done entirely without charm. The first half of the album up to and including Miss Sarajevo has a lot of soothing sounds and some enjoyable moments. The last half is all pretentious crap save for One Minute warning. I'd say the first half deserves a 3 out of 6 (mediocre) while the second half deserves a 2 (bad). The overall impression is :

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 3/6

Remember that these songs are all very concepty. It's probably not music you'd listen to in your car or in a pub, but if you want something that borders on background music without being quite as soundscapish as Eno's ambient albums, the first half may be an okay listen. Although the album can be safely skipped, some might want to pick this up out of curiosity. If you don't want to struggle with the whole thing, check out my favourite tracks first.

Favourite tracks : Slug, Your Blue Room, Miss Sarajevo, One Minute Warning

Added Trivia : The album pamphlet or what you call it had descriptions for all the movies, including the fake ones. Among these descriptions are lots of easter eggs that might be of interest to die-hard fans of U2. You can read about them on the album's wikipedia article.

Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction (1992)
 

Introduction :

Members on this album :

Dave Mustaine - guitar, lead vocals
Marty Friedman - guitar, backing vocals
David Ellefson - bass, backing vocals
Nick Menza - drums, backing vocals

Most know about Dave Mustaine and have some opinions about his music, but few aside fans know where the guy's really coming from. When he was little, his family was on the constant move, trying to get away from his sometimes violent, alcoholic father. When Dave was 15, he moved away from his mother and violent step-father and financed a flat on money he got for selling drugs. His supplier was a woman working in a record store who would drop by his apartment and give him drugs and albums and also had sex with him. Thus, Dave Mustaine was introduced to the music of bands like Motorhead and Iron Maiden as well as a rather destructive lifestyle with alcohol and hard drugs. In 1981 after seeing their ad in a magazine, Dave went to audition as lead-guitarist for Metallica. He didn't even get to audition as he was hired already after his warm-up on the guitar. Dave saw himself as the frontman of Metallica and eventually, his excessive substance abuse made him hard to get along with as well as a danger for the band. One day in 1983, they woke him up in their tour trailer, said his days with Metallica were over and dumped him at a buss station. Dave was pretty upset about that, especially after Metallica released their debut which had some of his stuff on it. Part as an agenda for revenge on Metallica, he formed the band Megadeth who's lineup for the 1985 debut My business is killing... And business is good had David Ellefson on bass, Chris Poland on second guitar and now deceased Gar Samuelson on the drums.

Megadeth has since been a drugged up heavy metal ride with several line-up changes. They often play fast and have enjoyed a reputation for being technically skilled. Dave's songs are often pessimistic and mistrustful of those in power and themes might deal with large-scale problems like tyranny and war or personal problems like suidical thoughts. During much of his career, Dave has been in a self destructive spiral and has been to rehab 15 times for various addictions including heroin. After a concert in Oregon which ended in a riot, Dave swallowed a handful of valium and was rushed to the hospital where he died, but was successfully resuscitated.

In the late 90s, he managed to sober up one final time and has stayed clean since. In the years after, he has announced his christian faith and now lives on a farm with his wife and two daughters Justis and Electra Mustaine .. Or did, I think he might be going through a divorce. Anways, although he's no longer a rock 'n roll dope-fiend, he still makes excellent music. Countdown to Extinction was Megadeth's fifth album and is the best-selling from their catalogue. It contains the band's most successful singles and was the first time they got massive media exposure like music videos played on MTV.


Song for Song Review :

The album opens strong with the classic Skin o' My Teeth, one of the faster songs on the album. I find it quite catchy and easy to like. In Dave's own words; This song is about how many times I've tried to kill myself but just couldn't get the ****in' job done. The theme is rather gloomy, but it made for an excellent song. Second track, Symphony of Destruction should need no introduction since most metal fans already know it and those who don't like metal may have been exposed to it through the video games like Guitar Hero. Fans may have grown tired of this song because of it's hype, but it doesn't change the fact that it's brilliant. The catchy guitar riff and machine-steady beat works extremely well with Dave's snarling vocals. The lyrics, dealing with the theme of dictatorship, are immediate ear catchers. Pure awesome. Watch the video if you want.




Architecture of Aggression is another good song which is roughly about war. It's another example of catchy riffs and good songwriting.

Great nations built from the bones of the dead,
With mud and straw, blood and sweat,
You know your worth when your enemies
Praise your architecture of aggression

Foreclosure of a Dream opens with a lovely, moody, melodic piece on the guitar which gives excellent impact to Dave's singing. David Ellefson wrote a lot of the lyrics and the song is supposedly about farming corporations driving family farms out of business as well as the rise and fall of political ideologies. They are delivered in the typical bleak Mustaine manner and the song bears the hallmarks of an instant metal hit. They also made a video. The music video version is not exactly the same as on this album, but check it out!




Sweating Bullets is another single from the album, but I consider it inferior to foreclosure and symphony. It deals thematically with schizophrenia and in the song and music video, different Dave Mustaines are having an argument among himself. It's not a bad song, but I prefer the tracks up to this point, possibly because I think this song feels unintentionally parodic.

This Was My Life is good, but aside from some memorable guitar, slips into the background on this album. The title track Countdown to Extinction deals with trophy hunting/poaching and resulting extinction of animals. The song actually won them the Humane Society of the United States Genesis Award for it's dealings with animal welfare. The sound is a bit more laidback and has a catchy bass-bit by Menza. Good stuff! High Speed Dirt is back with some dirty, screeching guitar and some higher pitched vocals by Dave. The song sometimes reminds me of Foreclosure of a Dream, although it has not nearly as much charm, so for me this is filler. The lyrics are about skydiving to your death, but I miss the conscience from the other songs. On the plus side, it has a lot of drive and energy, it's just missing some impact. Psychotron is about a man-robot killing machine by the same name. Again, I miss some depth in the lyrics, but by all means, in metal - songs about killer manrobots should be okay. Captive Honour is another album highlight for me and contains some absolutely kickass sounding guitar. It's also slightly more relaxed and while I don't fully understand the political lyrics (though they certainly deal with crime and punishment), there are some very memorable lines from this song.

And if you kill a man, you're a murderer ..
Kill many and you're a conqueror
Kill'em all - Ooh, you're a God

Despite all that it's got going for it, they decided to fill it with some rather silly sampled dialogue which at worst feels a bit parodic. While I do think it's slightly inappropriate, it can't ruin the song. It's too awesome for that. Ashes in Your Mouth opens strong with some fast guitar and drums. Again, the lyrical themes turn rather bleak in a song that I think is about the futility of humanity's future and how we always descend into war. The song also contains some good solo play. Nothing wrong there. By now, the album should be over .. Unless you have bonus tracks cued up, but as usual, I've chosen not to review those.


Review Summary :

Countdown for Extinction marked a change in the sound of Megadeth as some songs were a bit slower and adopted more typical hard rock structures. The result was a fairly accessible album and it's the band's biggest seller. While diehard fans may be a little turned off by this new direction, there's no denying that it was an extremely important album for Megadeth and resulted in many new fans. Perhaps unfortunately, Metallica's Black Album was popular around the same time and may have stolen some of the potential thunder. I know Dave felt agonized by this after the album's release. It bothers me a bit when people only know of Dave as the guy who hates Metallica. Megadeth is awesome and Dave is an extremely talented musician who, despite all his demons, shows a deep sense of morale in his songwriting. Countdown to extinction, aside from having pushed them to the height of their popularity, showcases that talent and combines it with accessibility, making it a great album and a good entry-point for new listeners.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6

Favourite tracks : Skin o' My Teeth, Symphony of Destruction, Architecture of Aggression, Foreclosure of a Dream, Captive Honour

I`m a huge fan of Megadeth as well and would far sooner listen to their stuff than say Metallica for example, this has largely to do with Dave Mustaine and his brand of Thrash along with his unique signing style.

I think you must have watched the same Megadeth documentary as me:tramp: as knew everything that you had written about Dave Mustaine, stuff that makes him one of the most interesting personalities in the history of rock.

As far as their albums go, Rust in Peace is their definitive work, hey! I would even say its one of the greatest metal releases ever, the album also has a manic energy that is unbelievable at times. As for Countdown to Extinction, its also a great album but the group are pushing in a more commercial direction and as you say, was around the same time as the Black album and that took some of its thunder away, even though I think its a far more enjoyable album. I think the opening riff on "Symphony of Destruction" followed by Dave`s vocals to be unforegettable.

I`ve never decided on their best line up, whether it be Chris Poland or Marty Friedman on Guitar, or Gars Samuelson or Nick Menza on drums.

Megadeth are one of those groups that I can listen to all day and every day.

The Earl Scruggs Revue - Anniversary Special Vol.1 (1975)
 

Introduction :

Artists on this album : Earl Scruggs and his two sons, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Billy Joel, Anita, Ruth and Issa Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) and many more

Most famous for his work with Lester Flatt (Flatt & Scruggs), Earl Scruggs is a country giant and considered a pioneer in the bluegrass genre for his influence on banjo playing. He started playing the instrument at 4 years of age and when he was 10, he invented the Scruggs-style picking, a play-style utilizing three fingers instead of the two-finger style. He rose to fame after he joined the band Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in late 1945. In 1948, Earl and fellow bandmate Lester broke out and started the duo Lester & Flatt who's most famous song is Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

If you haven't watched this video of Scruggs and various other musicians performing the Foggy Mountain Breakdown, then .. get to it! It is awesome!

Anyways, in 1969 he left the Flatt and Scruggs duo and instead started The Earl Scruggs Revue with his two sons and more guest artists than you can throw a very large stick at. They produced a handful of good albums, Anniversary Special Vol. 1 being one of them. It features a small heap of popular guest artists like Johnny Cash and a good selection of well-chosen cover songs, many or most written by the various guests.


Song for Song Review :

The album starts out with a catchy bluegrass banjo tune called Banjo Man, a great bluegrassy and loveable song about listening to your favourite banjo picker on the radio. The album then continues in the same vein with the absolutely lovely Swimming Song which is a feelgood song about swimming. By the sound of it, it might also be about overcoming the fear of swimming. Ghospel ship features a variety of guest artists doing vocals, among them Mr. Cash and Bleeker Street Rag is a fast banjo-driven instrumental piece which will make your head bop and your legs move. Royal Majesty is a ghospely, soulful, southerny hymn to Jesus, the kind I imagine might have been sung in american baptist churches. I'll admit it's not the kind of thing I usually listen to, but this track nails just that clichè sound and that makes it sort of enjoyable for me.

Rollin' in my Dreams is a relatively straightforward rock ballad while Song to Woody again cranks up the bluegrass feel. Third Rate Romance is a rock 'n roll tune with some great performances by what I guess must be the Pointer Sisters. Hey Pointer is another song that Johnny Cash has almost all to himself. He gets quite a lot of time on this album and this may be his most enjoyable contribution. Passing Through is another Jesus-song that, aside from not wanting my neighbours to think I've seen the light, makes for a better listen than I thought it would be. It feels slightly parodic with some funny vocal performances, but what the hell. It's overall impression is good.


Review Summary :

Needless to say, the Scruggs happily pick their way through most tracks on the album and gives that extra touch of bluegrass to the songs. The overall impression is that it's a feelgood album. It makes me think of hot days in the sun and I just wish I had a piece of straw to chew on and a banjo of my own. The songs are not all amazing, in fact there are few here that will stick with me long after a couple of spins on this album, but they are good even if they are not the kind of songs you'll take to heart and love forever. Banjo Man and Swimming song are definetly my favourites and are both swell tunes, but the latter being made up almost entirely of refrain makes for a lack of replay value.

Anyways, the album has some range, from feely rock songs to ghospels to bluegrass, so most should find a song or two that they like here. If you're not a fan of Earl Scruggs, then admirers of Johnny Cash should at least find several exciting bits here. Recommended!

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 4/6

Favourite tracks : Banjo Man, Swimming Song, Bleeker Street Rag, Hey Porter

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus (1971)
 

Introduction :

Members : Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (Bass, vocals, the rare guitar now and then), Carl Palmer (drums)

Emerson, Lake & Palmer are known as prog-rock's first supergroup and were extremely popular at the height of their career in the 70s. The trio was made up by Keith Emerson coming from The Nice, Greg Lake from King Crimson and Carl Palmer coming from Atomic Rooster. They released their eponymous debut album in 1970 and quickly garnered more and more fame with subsequent albums and touring. They are known for their pompous, bombastic on-stage performances and over-the top indulgences like Carl Palmer's two and a half-ton drum kit. In the late half of the 70s, ELP like so many other prog acts would drift apart because of artistic disputes and more importantly prog quickly becoming unpopular.

Tarkus is their very famous second album and their first concept album. The whole first side of the LP contained only one song, Tarkus, which very roughly tells the story of Tarkus - a half armadillo/half tank monster born out of a volcano. Tarkus fights other half-mechanical creatures and is eventually defeated by a Manticore. Tarkus then becomes Aquatarkus, an aquatic version of it's previous self. Aside from this rather abstractly told, strange tale, the lyrics also contains criticizm against war and organised religion. Art from the album's sleeve roughly illustrates the story.


Keith Emerson presented Tarkus to his fellow bandmembers almost in it's entirety. Greg Lake is known for his initial dislike of the work, but says it quickly grew on him with time. For many, the Tarkus suite is one of the true classic 70s prog-pieces and so it enjoys a lot of popularity to this day.

(Some added trivia, there's is one prog-rock magazine in Norway, guess what it's called .. Yup, Tarkus.)


Song for Song Review :

As you might expect from a prog-piece, Tarkus itself can be divided into different parts.

• Eruption (Emerson) – 2:43
• Stones of Years (Emerson, Lake) – 3:44
• Iconoclast (Emerson) – 1:15
• Mass (Emerson, Lake) – 3:11
• Manticore (Emerson) – 1:52
• The Battlefield (Lake) – 3:51
• Aquatarkus (Emerson) – 3:59

As Tarkus comes on, sound increases in strength and builds tension until it releases into the frantic Eruption dominated by a rapid playing by Keith in a 10/8 time signature, symbolizing the cascading eruption of the volcano from which Tarkus is born. As we come into the Stones of Years - the first of three vocal parts - the song becomes surprisingly radio-friendly with some soothing singing by Greg Lake that I'm not entirely able to interpret. With Iconoclast, the song gets more frantic again and represents Tarkus' travelling. Mass is back with with some radio-friendliness and lyrics ripe with religious references. The instrumental part Manticore represents the appearal of Manticore, Tarkus' enemy, and the ensuing battle between the two monsters. Tarkus is defeated as we come into The Battlefield, another spine-chilling part that returns to Greg Lake's vocals. Battlefield is written entirely by Greg and is the most moving part of Tarkus. The lyrics deal with war and it's consequences. Aquatarkus is the final and slightly whimsical last part of the suite where Tarkus is reborn as Aquatarkus. It ends with a return to the eruption theme. Phew.

That - Was - Brilliant!

Everything gets a bit weird as Jeremy Bender comes on, a whimsical tune that seems to contain lyrics about gender bending and even a reference to fisting. It certainly is a departure from the earlier prog-masterpiece as this song doesn't even cover 2 minutes in length. It's still an enjoyable song. Bitches Crystal is a slight return to some of the franticness of Tarkus mixed with some of the qualities of Jeremy Bender. It contains enjoyable performances by all. The Only Way (Hymn) starts with what sounds like a church organ. The first half is a slow churchy part dominated by Greg's singing. The lyrics return to the theme of religion.

Can you believe - God makes you breathe?
Why did he lose six million Jews?

Very clever. The last half of the song speeds things up with jazz-elements for a thoroughly enjoyable ending. Infinite Space (Conclusion) is a rather good instrumental piece by Keith and Carl. A Time and a Place and Are You Ready Eddy? returns the rock, especially the latter which is a rockabilly song that has more in common with Jailhouse Rock than it does with Tarkus. To be honest, I consider it rather awful. As such, the last track on Tarkus feels like a departure from the rest of the album.


Review Summary :

Emerson, Lake & Palmer seems like a group torn between a want to be both a rock 'n roll act and an ambitious prog-band. The album opens with an amazingly ambitious prog-piece and then ends with a silly rockabilly tune. Of the two ELPs, I much more like the prog-band than I do the rock-'n'roll-band and I feel the duality of this album lets it down a little bit. I would very much like an album that was more like the Tarkus track from start to finish.

I have to say, though, that the part of this album that is Tarkus is brilliant. It is one of my absolute favourite prog-works and my appreciation for it still only grows with each listening. It wasn't always like that for me. Like Greg Lake admitted, I also had initial problems with Tarkus .. I found it hard to get into and the three man band sounded a bit stripped down and dated compared to some of the other prog-music I listen to. However, with subsequent listenings, something clicked and Tarkus really started growing on me. By now, my appreciation for it is so that listening to it will send shivers down my spine and make the hair on my neck stand up - several times. It is a thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish and I love every little bit of it. Strangely, out of my selection of prog, it is also one of the pieces my girlfriend seems to appreciate the most.

So - to sum things up, I consider the Tarkus suite a masterpiece. It easily deserves a six out of six. However, for me - the whole album is let down by a disappointing last half which I would rate four out of six and my final score will reflect that. Also, as a message to new listeners and those who are sceptical - yes, it can be a hard album to get into. As I wrote, ELP's sound may not have aged as well as some of their prog contemporaries and some might not like the hammond/moog/whatever dominated music, but give it a shot. Sit down with Tarkus, give it a listen through and read my rather short descriptions of the different segments so you know what they represent. It might take a few listens, but if you fall in love with it like I and many others have, it will just keep giving and giving.

I wear my ELP T-Shirt with pride.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6 - (first half Tarkus - 6/6 / Second half - 4/6)

I have a Megadeth DVD which is basically about the band with a lot of interviews with Mr. Ellefson and others. As you know, David's left the band now which is a pity, seemed he was the one who stuck with Dave the longest (I recently saw him play bass in a band that warmed up for Heaven & Hell by the way). I have a lot of sympathy for Dave. Even if he's undeniably quite douchy now and then and has seen the light etc .. he's still more metal than most out there, certainly more metal than contemporaries Metallica. :rolleyes:

Countdown to Extinction was my first Megadeth album just like Black album was my first Metallica album. I know they're not the cool albums to like with the die-hard fans, but it's just the way it turned out for me. Still, Megadeth has tons of great stuff and I find something to appreciate on even their worst records. Favourite tracks at the moment are probably The Scorpion from The System has Failed (2004) and Sleepwalker from United Abominations (2007) which are both very recent albums .. To me, Dave's still got it even if he's a converted christian straight-edge smallholder. :)

Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998)
 

Introduction :

Massive Attack is one of the english trip hop groups that rose out of the Bristol undeground scene in the 90s to international success alongside contemporaries like Portishead and Tricky. The group was originally made up of Robert Del Naja, Grantley Marshall and Andrew Vowles, but have had a lot of collaborators working with them in the studio. They released their debut album "Blue Lines" in 1991 and followed up with their second, Protection, in 1994. Their third album, Mezzanine from 1998, marked a change in their sound and was a much darker-sounding album than it's predecessors. It would also become their to date best selling effort and is widely regarded as a trip-hop classic. Among the many collaborators on the album are Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins and Horace Andy .. but no more Tricky.

I got to know this album from an ex-girlfriend in the very late 90s and I've been giving it a spin now and then ever since. After 10+ years, it still sounds fresh.


Song for Song Review :

The album opens up to listeners with the bassline to the song Angel fading in. It is a gloomy, dark and yet gentle entry and a sign of things to come on the album. The track is heavy, repetitive, brooding and quite beauftiful with a lovely vocal performance by Horace Andy. For added trivia, I think it must be song most often used in TV european car commercials. It's not surprising that the commercial business would embrace it because it's so easy to get sucked in, even on the first listen. It's like it has a little world of it's own. It also has a music video that you can enjoy.




The next song, Risingson, continues very much in the dark and broody vein of this album. It's like hip-hop from the dark side. However, performances are a little flat and this track becomes background music to me. Although I consider it good background music, I also consider it skippable. Teardrop, in contrast to it's predecessor, brings a little light and hope into the album while still fully keeping in line with the concept. Elizabeth Fraser is amazing in this song and her singing in general brings a lot of emotion to this album, not least this track. Although not my favourite, this is perhaps the most successful single from Mezzanine for good reason. You might recognize it from the video. Here it is.




Inertia Creeps marks another highlight for me. Despite some deliciously dark and lush sounds and heavy beats, it still manages to sound slightly like a hymn to paranoia, grabbing a hold of the listener with dronelike suspense. Exchange's place in the track listing is perfect and gives a bit of welcome variation. The album takes a turn for dreamy feelgood with this lazy and lush instrumental. It is easily another contender for album favourite. Dissolved Girl is another good song with vocal contrubutions from Sarah Jay. It has a hypnotic start and features more heavy breakbeats and also throws in some distorted guitar riffs. The next song marks the return of Andy Horace. Man Next Door, although others may and have disagreed, is another highlight for me - possibly my favourite song from this album. It's a soulful and mournful lament about a horrible neighbour. Don't laugh, it's not funny! Aside from Andy Horace making this song unique, the song is catchy and is, for this album, relatively traditional in it's verse/refrain approach. Still, it also contains just about everything else you should expect from this album. Great stuff.

Elizabeth returns to sing on Black Milk. Again, it is so dark and yet so beautiful. Noone could have done it better than her. This song also has some interesting trivia surrounding it. It contains a sample from the song "tribute" from Manfred Mann's Earth Band's epnymous 1972 debut album. The group was sued for using the sample and has since cut the sample from the song when they play live. On the title track Mezzanine, Robert Del Naja does another vocal performance. It's in the same vein, but does not quite rise up to the quality of the earlier Inertia Creeps. Like Risingson, I consider this one of the less interesting songs on the album. Not quite filler, but with more background music quality. However, with the help of Elizabeth, the duet Group Four becomes quite enjoyable and is another great track. The song mixes some of the qualities of Dissolved Girl, Black Milk and Risingson together for a successful result. Horace Andy gets to close the album on (Exchange), a return to the previous song by almost the same name, but with added vocals. Like Angel served as a gentle introduction into this dark album, (exchange) rises from the darkness and gently takes us out of it. Very fitting and a superb way to end this gem!


Review Summary :

Mezzanine is an album full of substance and it's moody broody sounds pull you in for an immersive experience. While Robert De Naja has a flat, sometimes sinister and almost emotionless style when he raps, the guest artists (particularly Elizabeth and Horace) add bucketloads of feeling and beauty to which makes for some very exciting contrasts. There are many dark albums out there, but Mezzanine seems to know just when to bring in a little hope and a little light. It gives the listener a little relief, but also deepens the shadows. All in all, I think they accomplish a sense of immersiveness and atmosphere that many artists out there strive for but is still quite rare. As such, Mezzanine is unique and also one of my favourite albums from the 90s. It still sounds fresh today and it's no wonder it's songs have been used in a number of movies and commercials ..

Anyways, if you don't know it - what are you waiting for? Get it!

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6

Introduction :

Yes originally formed in London in 1968 is one of the early popular prog bands coming from the end of the 60s to their peak in the early 70s alongside acts like King Crimson, Genesis, Caravan and many more. Close to the Edge, their fifth album from 1972, is by many if not most considered their magnum opus and featured a lineup of now considered legendary prog-musicians - founding member and frontman Jon Anderson as lead singer, Chris Squire on bass, Steve Howe on guitars, Rick Wakeman on keyboards and Bill Bruford on drums. The five would all collaborate in a kind of hippie democracy when writing and recording their material. Rick would have an idea on the keyboard so they'd put that in the song, then Steve would have an idea for a short guitar riff and they'd include that and so on. In effect, this puzzle piece approach means that a lot of Yes songs are built up from lots of good ideas. This approach is evident on Close to the Edge which only consists of three tracks, focusing on the 18+ minutes long title track. Bill Bruford would leave Yes and join up with King Crimson shortly after recording the album because he felt the peak had been reached.

Also perhaps worth mentioning, especially for those who like vinyls, it featured lush cover art by artist Roger Dean who also worked with them on other albums.


The album has, since it's release, gained acclaim and is broadly considered an immortal prog classic. In 2006, it was voted the greatest progressive album of all time by progarchives and has also gotten mentions in other various best of lists. But does it still live up to the hype surrounding it?


Song for Song Review :

Close to the Edge opens quietly, then sounds of birds and running water fades in. Suspension builds and the listener is suddenly thrown into a torrent of sounds. The opening has a confusing and almost cacophonous quality to it. This goes on for about 3 minutes until something that actually sounds like a tangible song comes on where Steve plays a somewhat easy to grasp melody on the guitar. This goes on for another minute or so until finally - a steady beat comes in and Jon Anderson's vocals follow and gives the music real structure. At this point, Total Mass Retain despite some unpredictable timings sounds quite radio-friendly with a truly catchy melody and a chorus that is easily spinechilling.

After about 8 and a half minutes in, the song suddenly loses ground and becomes untangible, yet not random this time. Instead, it floats around on drifting harmonies. The music returns with layered vocals, but remains floating. The song at this point sounds like it's balancing on the edge of a knife. It has a fragile, haunting beauty - like it could break apart at any moment. This may be the finest moment on the whole record. Intensity then builds slowly until the song breaks up with a new piece being added to the puzzle, a hymn-like part on a church organ that again starts to break up and throws us back into a torrentlike state and a return to Rick's bit at the start of the song.

The torrent gives way to an awesome sounding jam on the earlier theme. When Jon Anderson comes back, the song is reborn and back on track with some plain awesome rock music. The song at this point sounds absolutely incredible and continues on to it's climax where it finally ends with a return to the sounds of birds and running water preceding it. Holy crap.


And You And I opens with a probing and searching acoustic guitar sounding quite lovely. It soon picks up a rythmn and dives into what is probably the most accessible parts of this album. Unlike the title track which has you listen to the birth of the song before it actually gets going, "And You And I" is a bit more immediate and easily features moments of splendor just as enjoyable and spinechilling as those on the title track. Again you find the variation in themes and the breaking up and rebirth of the song a bit more than halfway in and it all works. However, something magical happens about 6 minutes in. It's just another take on the same theme of the song, but the little changes make for perfection. When the song picks up a groove that carries it towards the end, I'm frankly astonished at how much awesomeness they've managed to cram into a ten minutes song. The track ends with another breaking up and a quick return to the main theme for the nth time which is absolutely stunning. It is perfect. No review can ever do it justice.


Siberian Khatru is slightly different from it's two predecessors which is fine because anymore of that could be too much and leave you emotionally ravaged. The first half is quite upbeat and playful and has a really good groove to much of it. The layered and beautiful vocal harmonies are present here as well as well as the variation between puzzle piece-like themes. In the latter half, it builds up for some really dramatic sounds before it loses some of it's focus and fades out with a faster jam-part. Needless to say, it sounds great. Another immortal prog classic!


Review Summary :

At first, I didn't want to write this review because I think the album is so astonishing that I can't really put down the experience of listening to it in words. I'm just not that good a writer. However, this album has been on repeat the last few days and I feel like I have to give it a shot just to help me move on :p: What I can say is that the title track is obviously the focus here. It starts with the spring-like birth of the song into the random torrents of sound that eventually grow and become a true prog-rock epic before it dwindles back to where it came from. It fits perfectly with the imagery that comes with the album. Also, as I've mentioned many times already, these songs are made up of a lot of ideas, variations and themes. The amazing thing is that just about all of them are very sound-aesthetic and pleasing on the ear. I'm sure you could pick these songs apart and have enough variety for several pop albums. Instead, they've crammed all this into no more than three epic tracks and they are all treasure troves of musical splendors. With so many ideas floating around, you might expect it to sound chaothic, but it never does so unintentionally. An analogy used earlier, the whole sound of at least the first two songs balances perfectly on the knife edge where suspense, timing, playfulness, seriousness, conceptuality and everything else come together at the perfect equilibrium. This makes for an album full of interesting dynamics where melodies are born, broken up, become tangible, intangible and so on, all with perfect timing.

The best parts for me are the dreamy, fragile and tender moments of beauty and there's quite a few of those. New listeners who are not used to prog albums should still remember that despite all my praise, most prog albums by far are growers. This one, although perhaps not particularly difficult, is no exception. It opens up to you as you get to know it. In other words, don't read my praise and then expect to be able to put this album on and instantly like it. You have to let it grow and I also think it helps to understand the music a bit conceptually. If you are a new listener, I recommend you to start with the second track "And You And I" since it's quite easy on the ear and see if you like that. If you do, I can guarantee you will like the rest.

So, is this really the best prog-album of all time? Yes, for me right now, it is. King Crimson, Caravan, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Camel, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, even popular favourites Pink Floyd .. They have nothing on Yes.

Amazing.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 6/6


I love coming across albums like this because it means I've found something that I can treasure and enjoy for the rest of my life. Many thanks to Yes!

Wow that was an amazing review, and I haven't even heard the album. Makes me want to go buy it.

Hehe, thanks! It's a been a little while since I wrote this review but even though the album is not quite as new and exciting now as then, I still love it just as much. It's still my all-time favourite prog album and I also see it still hovers around the top of progarchives top 100 prog albums ever list (nr.2 as I'm writing this actually).

If you're gonna pay money for an album, this one is highly likely to be worth it. :)

Madrugada - Industrial Silence (1999)
 

Introduction :

Madrugada is regarded a staple in norwegian pop and rock history and was, until their recent breakup, a rock band fronted by the deep voiced Sivert Høyem. Unfortunately, core member, guitarist and songwriter Robert Burås was found dead in his apartment on the 12th of july, 2007. Despite the tragic loss of their fellow bandmember, the band finished recording their last eponymous album which was released in january 2008. They had their last farewell concert later in november the same year.

The band started out in the early 90s as a classic guitar, bass, drums and vocals rock group and changed name several times from ØX to Abbey's Adoption to Six Generations. I wasn't until 97 or 98 that they finally settled with the name Madrugada. The word appearantly means the hour before sunset in spanish. After their final namechange, they released two EPs and their dark and melancholic rock sound got a lot of praise and attention. The EPs also generated lots of anticipation for their 1999 debut, Industrial Silence. When it was finally released, it was the first of several albums from the band to top the norwegian pop charts.

Industrial silence is today widely regarded as one of the most popular norwegian rock albums in history. After it's release in 1999, it won them a norwegian grammy in the rock category. It also spawned a few singles with accompanying videos that get airplay on radioshows and channels like MTV to this day.

But .. is it any good?


Song for Song Review :

Vocal opens quickly with two beats on the snare drum and wham!, you are immediately thrown out into Madrugada's lush melancholic rock sound. This ballad is one of the most well known and appreciated songs on the album. I already know it well and listening to it again, I'm not surprised it's popular because it does a good job of showcasing the band and their sound. It's fragile and robust at the same time, very melancholic - and also quite accessible. Beautyproof leaves the ballady feel and trades it for a bit of attitude. It's a droning rock song that starts out gently, then builds momentum until it gets quite loud and powerful at the end. Unlike the melodic guitar of the opening track, Beautyproof has a very simple guitar riff being played over and over. It's a good song and also a popular single, so I was able to find the video on youtube. Check it out!




Shine is another melancholic rock ballad in the same vein as vocal, but it's a step up on the romantic scale. If you can take that kind of stuff, there's not much to dislike about this song. I know soppy ballad sounds bad, but it's actually rather excellent and one of my favourite songs on the album. Higher, much welcomed, brings up the pace a little and finally gets things rocking. It's a good song with plenty of drive. Sirens starts out slow and ponderous at first, then like beautyproof builds suspension until it's pushing you towards the edge. Strange Colour Blue is another favourite with some and is yet another driving, droning melancholic rock tune.

This Old House interestingly throws a little harmonica and steel guitar into the mix. Despite being another basic rock tune, it's the first song to really break from the mold that's been built up so far on the album and I for one welcome the country influence. It's also not quite as dark as most of the songs before it. Electric is wholly enjoyable although at times, it eerily reminds me of the classic Unchained Melody. It features a return of the steel guitar and has plenty of passion and a very strong vocal performance by Sivert. Salt is apocalyptic and dark with militaristic drums, drive and anger. At times it's almost lamentatious and the lyrics slightly grotesque.

"As long as we are free - We'll be doomed to live and die - Under the great suburban sky"

It actually sounds like it could be Nick Cave song. Neat huh? Belladonna is a wall of sound slow rock song with distorted guitar and heavy, dronous drumming filling every audible crack. The bad thing about it is that it sounds a bit like a mix of stuff you’ve already heard before on this album, only not as good. The refrain is scarily similar to that of beautyproof. Norwegian Hammerworks Corp. immediately sets things right again. At the start, Sivert is reciting lyrics over a droning drum and guitar playing a simple yet heavy riff. As the recital ends, so does the music -- until Sivert’s vocals come back singing more this time, eventually reciting “with the hands of love” like straight out of Joshua Tree. I won’t pretend like I understand it, but I like it.

Quote Emotional is a love song song you could have a nap to. It’s soothing, slow and dreamy at times. The slightly self-indulgent and experimental Terraplane sounds like more night-music and actually reminds me a bit of Portishead. Just replace Sivert Høyem with Beth Gibbons, get some breakbeats in and it could work. However, it also works as a Madrugada song although this is perhaps not the most exciting moment on the album. And that’s it, phew!


Review Summary :

So what do we have here? Well, despite some variations in influences, Madrugada mostly stays very true to their melancholic rock sound and for an album that's roughly 64 minutes long, it's a bit much in one sitting. While some of the songs sound conceptual, for example Norwegian Hammersmith Corp., the album as a whole sounds like just a collection of songs, some better than others. In a way, I think many of the individual songs are stronger than the album as a whole which lacks variety and eventually becomes a bit boring. That's perhaps my biggest beef with it.

However, the saviours of norwegian rock have put out an astounding debut and I can definetly see why it became so popular. One of the more interesting things about Madrugada, I think, is how they were able to take such a classic, simple band setup and such simple chords and make such a rich, moody sounds and great songs. Most people with a little guitar-skill will be able to play along while they listen and thus, they show again that the quality of rock music isn't necessarily in it's technical complexity. However, while all the songs are good or better, some of them are still a bit poppy for my tastes and many lack replayability .. but that could also have something to do with me having known this album since release.

It was either gonna be a weak 5 or a strong 4, either very good to good or vice versa. A lot of people would beyond doubt give this album a 5, but I'm gonna give it :


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 4/6


Now, had the album been shorter, say about 45 minutes, I probably would've given it a 5 without thinking twice. Thus, despite the good score, I will strongly recommend this album to all of you because it has some really good songs on it. Just don't sit down and try to listen through the whole thing, you may get bored. Instead, listen to one or two of my favourite songs and see if you like it!

favourite songs : Vocal, Beautyproof, Shine, Higher, This Old House, Electric, Norwegian Hammerworks Corp.

I'm really liking "Vocal."

Amazing review. [=

Thanks! :D

If you like it, I can guarantee that you'll also like "Shine" from the same album. They have quite a lot of songs in that melancholic rock ballady vein actually - from other albums as well. Here's the song "majesty" from their third album "Grit" (2002).

Introduction :

Norwegian Kåre & The Cavemen did a lot before their debut album was released in 1997. They started out as a Beastie Boys inspired hip-hop/punk act, but soon turned to 50s and 60s sounding garage rock around the fall of 1990. Later in the early 90s, the band rooted themselves deeply in the norwegian underground and in 1993, they were writing and recording jingles for popular music radio channel NRK P3. According to experts specializing in 90s pop culture history, an increase in interest in older music supposedly sparked by 90s movie Pulp Fiction helped renew interest in Kåre & the Cavemens movie-soundtrackish sounds and by 1996, they became the house band on norwegian comedy/talk-show "Direkte Lykke". It was also around that time they got a record deal with Virgin. Their debut album "Jet Age" got overall good reviews and contains a lot of cover material in excellent surf rock fashion.

Also back in 1996, lead guitarist Knut Schreiner joined up with "death-punk" band Turbonegro under the stage name Euroboy. Turbonegro became smoking hot in the 90s european punk underground and after Kåre and the Cavemen's debut, the band laid low while Knut spent his time with the denim denoms. However, not long after Turbonegro's classic album "apocalypse dudes" in 1998, singer Hank Von Helvete had a mental breakdown which gave Knut the time to once again focus on Kåre & the Cavemen and their second album.

(Kåre & the Cavemen would later change name to Euroboys, basically to get their music out there. Thus, their official name today is "Euroboys". Norwegian appreciators like me still call them by their old "norwegian" name.)

Their second album, the instrumental "Long Day's Flight 'Till Tomorrow" released in 1999, is by everyone I know considered a cool and classic norwegian surf/psychedelic/lounge rock album. So let's review it!


Song for Song Review :

The album is off to a gentle roll like waves on a beach as the harmonica from Deliverance comes probing. It's a slow song and perhaps not the most exciting start on an album, but it does show that they've surely developed since their debut adding soft-rockish lounge to their repertoir. The result is, for me, instantly likeable - especially when the bass, guitar, drums and organ enters the stage. I love that it somehow manages to sound so norwegian, yet I can't put my finger on why. Moving on, if there's a pop "hit" on this album, it's definetly the funky Filadelfia, one of two songs on the album that has sung lyrics although these appear only in the chorus. Although it may not have the most replay value, the production is excellent and the sound is groovy with laid-back ease. Bass complements guitar complements organ for great dynamics. Schreiner's guitar playing is easy, clean and sounds wonderful. However, things get much more exciting as the song slows down to a near standstill before it explodes into the next track, Down the Road of Golden Dust. This retro-sounding 60s west coast rock song sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a cool road movie. It's got the funky guitar, the funky bass, awesome horns and killer organ. Fortunately, I found it on youtube as well (though not in the best quality) so here's a chance to get some ears-on insight as to what I'm trying to describe to you.




Although you may not be able to tell from the youtube vid, the production is excellent and every instrument comes to it's crisp right. This might just be the album highlight. However, quality is still very high indeed when the next track "Transatlantic Phonecall" comes on. Deliciously lush, retro loungy guitars and the once again unmistakably norwegian (imo) sound make this track maybe as good as it's predecessor. It lacks some of the energy, but it's still reasonably funky and gains points for pure aesthetics.

Gallery Oslo marks a slight change in the album as it leaves behind muche of it's surfy funky energy and relies more on laid-back, lazy instrumentals. It still has appeal and the guitar now shares the center stage with a lovely flute. However, it doesn't quite manage to excite so much as the highlights before it. Neither does Sex Kabin which is not as juicy as the name might imply. Invisible Horse works well with easily likeable guitar sounds and a 5/4 time signature but might get a bit boring if treated as something else than background music .. Well, until the middle of the song when it suddenly changes to a standard timing, picks up speed and throws us into a wild guitar solo followed by a go at the organ. Is it good or out of place? Not sure.

Rock'n'roll Farmacia brings back the funk and mixes it with with once again delish guitar sound and trumpets that sound like they've been stolen right out of a mexican mariachi band. Not bad for norwegian gringos! In Farfizium starts deceptively gently, then ups the amp and gets plenty of drive. The organ takes center stage in another song which is thoroughly enjoyable. The slightly progressive 99 is the other song to have lyrics and while it's more weird than awesome, it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of this album. Black Fez is maybe even stranger. As it opens up to you, it almost sounds like it could squeeze in on Massive Attack's Mezzanine. Not quite, but you'll hear what I mean. It's slow, heavy and features a mystic sounding eastern theme with some awesome sitar-playing thrown in for great potency and justice.

The rock song Ambulance Cruiser sounds suspiciously traditional in it's simple verse / refrain themed setup and does not add much new to the table. I prefer the slower, more melodic and more unpredictable closing track Gibraltar whose sound at times remind me, aside from usual influences, a bit of swedish rock band Bob Hund. That's it.


Review Summary :

The album ticks in at 1 hour and 10 minutes which is a long time to try and keep someone interested considering this is an instrumental album with a lot of laid-back sounds. However, they do a surprisingly good job at it, certainly better than my last reviewed album before this (Madrugada's Industrial Silence). It's been a while since I listened to this in it's entirety and once again the album took me by surprise. I didn't expect it to be this good!

While it is a while since I listened to the whole album, some songs from this album still get a decent amount of plays from me. The duo "Down the Road of Golden Dust" followed by "Transatlantic Phonecall" is a must-listen for anyone and is a good enough reason on their own for anyone to get this album. When the cavemen are at their best, they ooze of musicality. Instrumental performances are sound and production is nice and clean while still sounding sufficiently old and retro.

So who would I recommend this to? Everyone! Especially those who like instrumental rock, cool 60s/70s sounds and movie soundtracks.


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6


favourite songs : Deliverance, Filadelfia, Down the Road of Golden Dust, Transatlantic Phonecall, Rock'n'Roll Farmacia.

Almost all these tracks are from the first half which is definetly the strongest in my opinion.

The song you showed me is a lot more pop-like than "Vocal."

I'm trying to figure out who it reminds me of. I do like it, it just doesn't strike me like the other song did. ^_^

Introduction :

Members :

Doom Perignon (Henning Solvang) – guitar, lead vocals since 2003,
El Doom (Ole Petter Andreassen) – guitar,vocals,
Angelov Doom (Egil Hegerberg) – bass , keyboards,vocals,
Fast Winston Doom (Halvor Winsnes) – drums

Thulsa Doom is a norwegian stoner rock band from the Duplex Records label. The independent Duplex label was started by relatively small group of people (friends) who played in a relatively large amount of bands. Among these few people are norwegian celebrities like Kristoffer Schau, Egil Hegerberg and Aslag Guttormsgaard. They and others would make up different concept bands that were mostly just jokes at first (Sin Egen Onkel, Stjerten, Kul Ful Driv Gjøn, mm.), then comedic acts with good songs (Bare Egil Band, Gartnerlosjen) to competent and largely respected acts in norwegian rock that still might not be 100% serious about what they do like The Cumshots, Black Debbath and .. of course, Thulsa Doom.

Thulsa Doom, who tried (at least at first) tounge-in-cheek to appeal to slobs with beer guts who like fast cars and porn, is one of the more serious efforts to come out of Duplex. Perhaps because stoner rock has less appeal or because they did it with less humour, it's also lesser known than most other acts from the label who put out more than one album. They have a knack for long titles and their first album from 2001 was "The Seats Are Soft But the Helmet is Way Too Tight". It was followed up by 2003 album "...And Then Take You to a Place Where Jars are Kept" which contained awesome stoner rock songs like "Why Do You Keep On (Watching the Porno) After You Came?".

Their third album is called "Keyboard, Oh Lord! Why Don't We?" and the title is taken from a line in the lyrics of Paul McCartney's duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory". Keyboard Oh Lord marks a change in the band's stoner sound as they got a little less heavy and a bit more accessible. Also, singer Papa Doom (Jacob Krogvold) got replaced by Doom Perignong (Henning Solvang).

The band members expressed being greatly pleased with where the band was headed at the time. What do I think?


Song for Song Review :

Papa Was opens up with a harmonious goodbye to the old Papa Doom before the heavy guitar riff comes on. It might be more accessible sounding than previous efforts, but a heavier-than-lead production by Ole Petter Andreassen keeps my little woofer bouncing happily on the floor and turns the guitar and bass into a sonic attack. Although I can't really make out the words and I'm always wondering what they're singing, Papa Was is a good track and a solid opener.

It gets better still when Need the Air comes on with a guitar riff that my girlfriend absolutely loves. Now we can really start talking about a departure from their previous sound because while still leaden with that heavy production, Need the Air also works as a pop song and even has some steel guitar and strings thrown in and becomes almost anthemic. Jarle Medhus made a video for the song which you can enjoy. It suffers soundwise from bad quality, but check it out!




Stay O.K. follows and is a frantic, slightly desperate rock song. It also contains chorused vocal harmonies and more delicate parts that might make the hairs on your arms stand up a little. It is definetly another highlight on this album. Raisins and Grapes is bloody brilliant when it comes in, opening with a little jam before that heavy, sludgy guitar sound comes on. Simple yet effective drumming by Fast Winston Doom and a good vocal performance by Doom Perignon makes this a very good track all-round although it can get a bit repetitive in the end. Next up is a cover of Beach Boys' Tears in the Morning which is a gutsy move by a stoner rock band - although of course Thulsa Doom answers to noone but themselves. The cover is quite good and I like it. In the Deep of the City is a poppy yet excellent track with some very cool 70s organ playing. Be Forewarned, the album's second cover, is an awesome version of Pentagram's song. If you're looking for stoner rock on this album, this is where you're probably gonna find it.

By now, we know that this is not really stoner rock anymore and so The Ballad Of Me And Fast Winston Doom may not come as a surprise. It's slow and heavy and while not a favourite, it does send the band in a new direction. At times, it reminds me a bit of Seigmen, another norwegian 90s somewhat dark grunge-act. Mr. Slow ups the pace a bit and is a rock song with great dynamics and once again visits by the thick wall of sound. Vocal harmonies and heavy guitar mixes again with excellent singing by Doom Perignon.

With those words start the epic 9 minutes title track Keyboard, Oh Lord! Why Don't We?. Variations in themes and some excellent guitar wanking help keep it interesting while still heavy enough to sink an aircraft carrier. It drags on a bit at the end, but I still consider it a good closing track.


Review Summary :

Those who expected a real stoner rock album from Thulsa Doom may have gotten slightly disappointed, but if you throw expectations to the wind (or if this is your first encounter with them), you might find that "Keyboard, Oh Lord! Why Don't We?" is a surprisingly fresh sounding album. Drawing on more influences from 70s rock and pop acts like the 60s Beatles and The Byrds allows for more variation and the production is rock solid and tight as a duck's cloaca. Doom Perignon, while not as stony (or "trashy sounding") as Papa Doom, does a good job and I actually prefer him as a singer. In fact, it sounds like they just recently discovered they all could sing because this album has a lot of harmonious and good backing vocal performances from the other members as well.

I've been to a couple of concerts with these guys and while they sound tight on the record, they're every bit as good on stage. This album, their latest, is a solid rock album and Thulsa Doom does not get enough credit. Get it if you like stoner flavoured rock music with the occasional pop influence!


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6


favourite songs : Papa Was, Need the Air, Stay O.K., Raisins And Grapes, Tears in the Morning, Be Forewarned, Mr. Slow.

Damn nice review.

I had never heard of them until this.

You definitely have me interested in the earlier stuff. Their 2003 release seems like a good starting place for me, in theory -- not exactly of the beer-bellied variety, and I think I'd prefer a stoner undertone more than a whimsical one.

Does that one get your approval too?

The earlier ones are also fine albums, but from start to end they're not as good for me. Still, the songs have tons of style and attitude, but the mainstream appeal is rather less than on their last one and the songs are stylistically less varied which is part what makes the albums a little less likeable.

So, less variation and less mass appeal. There are good and bad sides to both, I think. On the upside, they've got tons of attitude and style and the cool factor is rather high (I think).

Here's Birthday Pony from their 2001 debut, "...And Then Take You to a Place Where Jars Are Kept"! Note that this is the old singer, Papa Doom. :)




edit :

The bassist and the guitarist also play in Duplex band "Black Debbath" which is a more whimsical stoner rock/doom metal band. They were quite similar back in the days and I think the bands have diverged more after Keyboard, Oh Lord. Black Debbath's songs are mostly in norwegian except their album "Welcome to Norway" (2001) which is a kind of doom metal tourist guide. Here's the song "Mongo Norway" from that one which is about the night life in Oslo.

Great review as usual Tore. Im huge into the entire dessert, stoner, doom, sluge scene so I am definitly gona check this out. I let you know once im done!

Thanks! :)

I might write a review about Welcome to Norway as well one day. It's a fun album - definetly not meant to be serious, but some of the songs (like Mongo Norway) are quite good I think!

One thing about norwegian culture is that we're a bit scared of embracing the cheese. The bands above are quite conceptual and cheesy and I think humour makes it safe for them to take it as far as they want. Without it, they would be ridiculed for being serious about something cheesy. It's a large part of the key to their success in Norway.

.. The same also makes it hard for the black metallers of course.

Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976)
 

Introduction :

Alan Parsons as a famous audio engineer, musician and record producer should need no introduction, so I'll try to keep this one short. In the 60s, he worked with engineering successful albums like The Beatles "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be". In the early 70s, he engineered Pink Floyd's well known and loved "Dark Side of the Moon" album, something he's quite famous for as well as producing other acts for EMI. Parsons had his own manager, scotsman and musician Eric Woolfson, whom he had met in the Abbey Road studio in 1974. Together, they made the Alan Parsons project (supposedly named after Alan because of his fame) where Alan would produce and engineer songs written by the two. Their debut album was based on the works of the famous and slightly macabre Edgar Allen Poe, favourite writer of many a young goth. Tales of Mystery and Imagination was released in 1976 and features guest artists such as Arthur Brown ("The Crazy World of Arthur Brown") and Leonard Whiting (british actor). Neither Alan nor Eric considered themselves real singers and preferred to look elsewhere for vocal talents. The album also contains major contributions by the band Pilot who Alan Parsons had done production for.

After it's release, the debut became a success, yet Alan himself was not completely satisfied. 11 years later in 1987, before rereleasing the album on CD, he worked through the album song by song and added to it such as narration by Orson Wells, synths and additional guitar solos. The following is a review of this 1987 reissue.


Song for Song Review :

The album opens with narration by Orson Welles as music trickles in and creates some initially lush sounds that turn into an accessible bit with a simple bass, drums and fingerplay on guitar. The track is A Dream Within a Dream and serves mostly as an introduction into the album, although an enjoyable one as such. When the song is done building up to a small climax, it degrades until we're left with the beating bassline that continues into the next track, The Raven. The Raven is considered an Alan Parsons classic and is notable for being the first song recorded with a vocoder which gives Alan a robotic voice as he sings through the first parts of Edgar's poem by the same name. In the poem, a distraught lover is visited by the raven Quoth that won't leave. Quoth observes the lover's descent into madness and keeps reminding him of his lost love by repeating the word "Nevermore". That's a rough summary. The poem is loved by many and so should the song be because it is excellent! It's quite dynamic with rocky parts, pompous orchestral parts and moments of beauty with some wonderful choir backing vocals. Leonard Whiting does the lead vocals and, despite lacking confidence in his own voice at the time, does an excellent job! Here's a fanmade video for the song.




The next track is a rock song, The Tell-Tale Heart in which the memorable and slightly maniacal Arthur Brown makes a charming appearance. It's pompous, catchy and features much screaming and lisping to the listeners delight. It also features slower orchestral bits and a guitar solo, but Arthur Brown's crazy vocal performance definetly takes center stage. Thank you Mr. Brown!

The Cask of Amontillado is sung by John Miles and contains the album's most beautiful moments. It's a lush ballad with orchestral elements and lovely harmonious backing vocals. More dramatic orchestral parts add some variation and keeps it from becoming too soppy. This song is my girlfriend's favourite from this album and she even said she'd like it to be played at our wedding. Suffice to say it's easily likeable.

Doctor Tarr and Professor Feth is another highly likeable rock song with a groove and some catchy lyrics. Before it ends, it revisits musical themes from A Dream Within A Dream, The Raven and the Tell-Tale Heart, reminding us that this is a concept album.

The Fall of the House of Usher at a little more than 15 minutes is the most ambitious track on the record (although it might be split into several tracks depending on the release). It opens with another monologue by Orson Welles on music. If you're expecting a prog-rock epic, you might get surprised when the prelude part plays like a piece by a symphony orchestra and several parts of this song sounds like it could be in a soundtrack for a classic creepy movie. The Pavane part has a more traditional rocky bit although with some strange sounds like harpsichord and what sounds to be a mandolin. The end, Fall, sounds a bit like a symphonic orchestra playing the musical equivalent of that part of the nightmare just before you wake up. On the whole, it's good - but it's sadly not the reason why I put this album on and as such, I wish it was a little shorter. However, if you're looking for feelings of Poe-ish suspense and sounds of the eerily supernatural, this is where you have the biggest chance of finding it.

The One in Paradise featuring Terry Sylvester is a serene rock ballad that opens with a bit on the guitar that reminds me of Buckethead's "Watching the boats with my dad". It's enjoyable, but not more so than the other pre-Usher tracks.


Review Summary :

The album has been critizised for not being quite as spooky and macabre as Edgar Allen Poe's works which it is based on and aside from a few moments on The House of Usher, I wholeheartedly agree. That doesn't mean that this is not a good album. Although the last parts can drag on a bit, it's got all good songs and a couple of them, The Raven and Cask of Amontillado, could even have hit potential. For an album that is considered prog-rock, it is quite accessible and I think anyone would find a song or two that they like from this one even if they haven't heard much prog before. The different singers and different songs add variety enough to keep it from becoming boring. As you'd expect from an audio engineer/producer with a resume like Mr. Parsons, the sound of the album is impeccable. Nothing is half-assed or sloppy and the only slightly bad thing about the perfect production is that is makes the album sound a little artificial at times.

In other words, despite a slight disappointment with the lack of complexity, replayability and Poe-ish mood, the strength of some of these songs alone make this album my favourite from the Alan Parsons project. It can safely be recommended to anyone who could at all consider picking up an album from the 70s.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6

Favourite tracks : The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado

Return to Forever - Return to Forever (1972)
 

Introduction :

Chick Corea is a famous jazz pianist and fusionist with several grammy awards behind him. In the 60s, he became a member of Miles Davis' Band and contributed on several of Miles Davis' later albums like Bitches Brew and On the Corner.

Return to Forever (band) is one of the big 70s jazz fusion group alongside contemporaries like Weather Report and Mahavishnu orchestra. Chick founded the band after becoming a scientologist in 1972 whereupon he decided he wanted to communicate more with the audience and felt the avant-garde jazz he was then dabbling with wasn't listener-friendly enough. However you feel about scientology (I'm not a fan), Chick has claimed to get a lot of inspiration from Mr. Hubbard's teachings and Return to Forever's discography is a treasure trove of jazz fusion riches where basically every album is a safe bet.

Return to Forever's debut is credited both to the band, serving as their debut, and as a Chick Corea album. It is widely regarded as an electric jazz classic.


Song for Song Review :

The first song by Return to Forever on their debut Return to Forever is the song named Return to Forever. It opens softly and carefully with a haunting melody played by Chick Corea on electric piano. Singer Flora Purim and flute joins in for quite a ghostly mood that my girlfriend complained is too creepy. However, it doesn't last long before it breaks up and we're thrown into the next part of the song where a steady, filling drum rythmn provides a foundation on which an airy piano and flute jam and improvise over. There are a couple of simple hooks that are real earwigs. Much to the listener's delight, we get a return to the spooky theme - which I find so gods-damned enjoyable even if it's only there for a few seconds - until we're thrown into another jam with a driving rhythmn and some simple hooks that seem to come and go. The music almost has a mysterious trance-like quality that makes it quite a laid-back listening experience despite it's fast rhythmn and occasional screams towards the end. Before it's over, we get one final return to the ghostly theme. As we say in Norway, all good things come in threes (don't ask me why) .. And this track is marvellous!

Crystal Silence is a bit of noodling about by Chick before he's joined by Joe Farrell on saxophone. That might sound a bit boring, but it's a thoroughly delicious and warm listening experience, completely laid-back and enjoyable. Laying down on a couch listening to this with your eyes closed might be the best way to enjoy this, but the comfort might put you to sleep.

If the album has a spooky opening, What Game Shall We Play Today is completely the opposite which is a feel-good slightly poppy jazz piece with sung lyrics by miss Flora Plurim. Aside from Flora's vocal performance, the song is dominated by Chick's piano and Farrell on flute. It gives me associations to fun, sun, green grass and flowers .. and its yet another earwig!

The last track can actually be split in three. It starts off with a bass and electric piano improv that goes on for quite a while before flute makes it's appearance followed by actual structure a little later, turning it into Sometime Ago. It's another laid-backy feel-good song with singing by Flora. Jams with a lot of flute and electric piano alternate with the poppy theme until the song slows down during a transition, the flute is traded for a sax, and the song turns into La Fiesta which is one of Corea's standards. There are no sung lyrics this time, but parts of it has a clear melody line played on the saxophone. Castanets and a somewhat more intense energy gives the song a sometimes flamencoish feel and of course the song is ripe with jams and solos. Excelente!


Review Summary :

Aside from a bit of noodling at the start of the last track, there's not really much negative to say about this album. The sound is relatively simple - you usually have dense (but not heavy) drumming forming a foundation with electric piano and flute or electric piano and sax playing and jamming on top, giving the music a very light feel. The bass is also excellent, sometimes predictable and other times unpredictable, either joining in with the flute and piano or siding more with the drums. It's clear that these are excellent musicians, yet for all their instrumental mastery, this is not a flashy record. Compared to later Return to Forever albums like f.ex Romantic Warrior (which is also excellent), the music is often less melody driven and the focus seems to be more about sounds and what they evoke in us, perhaps especially on the title track which is my favourite of the bunch. There's still a fair share of earwigs on this album and all hooks are relatively simple and effective.

On the whole, the album comes across as very improvisational and quite laidback, despite often fast tempos and wild solos. All the songs have a relaxing softness about them and they're just the thing to listen to when I'm at work, counting bugs.

At the moment of writing, this is my favourite jazz fusion album and I just don't seem to tire of it. I would recommend it to anyone who could enjoy jazz or jazz fusion and I think it's an easy album to like. Much of it's attraction is appearant, but even more is subtle and my tip to those who wanna try this one out is to just put it on while you're posting here or doing something else. Don't expect it to grab a hold of you instantly, but give it a spin and see where it takes you. I'm sure you'll like it!


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 6/6


Favourite tracks : All of them!

Many thanks to Anteater for getting me into these guys :D

Gentle Giant - Octopus (1972)
 

Introduction :

Members on this album :

Gary Green - Guitars, percussion
Kerry Minnear - All keyboards, vibraphone, percussion, cello, Moog, lead and backing vocals
Derek Shulman - Lead vocals, alto saxophone
Phil Shulman - Saxophones, trumpet, mellophone, lead and backing vocals
Ray Shulman - Bass, violin, guitar, percussion, vocals
John Weathers - Drums, percussion, xylophone

The very much celebrated Gentle Giant are much loved here on MB and should require no introduction with the prog crowd, but here's one just in case. They're an early british prog band that started when the multi-instrumentalistic Shulman brothers joined up with the also multi-instrumentalistic Gary Green and Kerry Minnear - and then drummer Martin Smith (see members). Gentle Giant are renowned for their virtuosity, complexity, creativity and somewhat unique style. Basically, they were a bunch of guys talented with a wide range of instruments who had a knack for making music with odd hooks, twists and turns™. According to a proclamation in their second album Acquiring the Taste's album sleeve, the band wanted to "expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular". Unfortunately, that goal was lost when they buckled under pressure after the punk wave, but despite some sad efforts to appeal to the masses later on in their discography, their first 7 albums are all widely regarded as prog gems.

Octopus from 1972 is their fourth album and their last as a sextet. It also featured a change in lineup from the previous album, changing drummer Malcolm Mortimore for John "Pugwash" Weathers who would stay with them for the rest of their discography. Weathers is one of prog's ugliest men, but still quite charming and strangely iconic. Aside from a diversity in instruments, all members except Mr. Pugwash do vocals on this album. The album name "octopus" is a play on words combining "octo" meaning eight and "opus" which means musical composition, reflecting the 8 tracks on the album. The UK cover art seen above was done by Roger Dean for great prog justice.


Song for Song Review :

Advent of Panurge comes on without warning, delivering the first lyrical line as soon as you press the play button. "There coming over Charaton Bridge" - then some strange noodlings before the second line is delivered. If you're new to Gentle Giant, this may already weird you out a little. The song continues to bring some awesome vocal performances before it dives headfirst into an tight, jammy groove as Weathers comes in with the drums, building up suspense through twists and turns™ until it reaches what might be the refrain. Describing every song in detail will have me writing a bigger wall of text than I think anyone would enjoy reading, but this song is amazing and possibly my album favourite. It has several little themes that work well together for dynamic perfection. The song is about the friendship between Pantagruel (a giant king) and Panurge, two characters from François Rabelais novel series "The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel" from the 16th century. If you like GG and this sounds familiar, it's not their only song to be inspired from these works - as is f.ex the opening track of their second album "acquiring the taste".

Raconteur Troubadour is a more medieval-inspired song where lead singer Derek basically takes the role as a troubadour come to the village square. It is a perhaps just a little bit more straightforward than the opening track, but still sure to confuse first-time listeners. However, loveable as it is, it's another top track from this album.

I Cry for Everyone is a rock song with drums and a guitar riff from the get-go. Of course it has all of the Gentle Giant creativity thrown in. When I first got to know this album, I thought of it as a bit of filler, but the more I listen to it, the more I love it. The song is inspired by the work and beliefs of the absurdist Algerian-French author and philosopher Albert Camus.

Knots is gods-damned brilliant! It opens with some amazing vocals and the whole thing is just splendidly catchy. This might be the strongest contender for the best track on the album for me. It's based on the book "Knots" by psychiatrist Ronald David Laing who wrote about mental illnesses, particularly psychotic experiences. I found a live performance where they play the song which I will embed here for your enjoyment, but beware that the version they play here is not like the studio version from the album. There's a lot left out and a lot thrown in, such as a bit from "Edge of Twilight" which is a song from their second album. The vocal parts are all Knots though!




Despite crappy sound quality and Pugwash not doing much - If that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

The Boys in the Band won't let anyone down either. It starts off with someone laughing and a coin being spun on a table before it bursts into life with an instrumental piece that has more twists and turns™ than a bucket of eels. Aside from the frantic first theme, there are more relaxed parts with moog, saxophone and more. Excellent!

Dog's Life is the shortest on the album and is a lovely, slightly melancholic song about a dog's life which I guess is quite a departure from some of the other topics touched upon.

Pat him on the head, give the dog a bone;
Use a friendly tone, he won't leave you alone.
No one understands like old faithful.

The verses in particular are quite enjoyable and all in all, another excellent tune.

Think of Me With Kindness is a piano ballad which my GF loves. I love it too and of all the songs on the album, this is perhaps the most emotionally evoking piece. However, it's not this kind of stuff Gentle Giant is most famous for. Yet it's still accomplished and beautiful with occasional GG twists™.

River grabs a hold of me from the start. It's arguably the rockiest song on the album and has a great violin riff before sung lyrics join the mix. It also contains a fleeting middle part with some lovely singing and a blues-rocky last half with accompanying guitar. It is not a contender for favourite for me, but still a good track and a nice way to end a great album.


Review Summary :

I'll start with the negative first. The only thing I can find to really complain about is that Octopus seems to lack focus or wholeness. My other prog sixes reviewed so far, Caravan's For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night and Yes' Close to the Edge, have songs that are conceptually similar and sound like they belong on their respective albums. Gentle Giant's discography doesn't seem quite as conceptual in general and their sound didn't change that much so some of the songs on Octopus sound like they could just as well have been on one of their other albums. Also, they generally don't evoke the kind of emotions and imagery some of the other classic prog albums do.

However, this is made up for by Gentle Giant's unique, delightful and fun sound. They were amazingly creative and many of the catchy hooks in this album (there's a lot of them) are so weird and so unique, yet so effective. All the tracks are good and there are more ideas floating around than you can shake a very large stick at - and they're all good! Generally speaking, GG must be a wealth of inspiration for young proggers today and Octopus is often viewed as having been released at the start of their peak period.

However, this is not for the prog-squeamish. If you don't like progressive rock, I'm sure you're gonna hate this and if you don't like albums you have to listen to a few times before they start to stick, then you might as well steer clear of this and likely the rest of GG's discography. However, as usual with great prog albums, once you get into it, it will just keep giving and giving .. and this is one of the best! It is an altogether brilliant and fun album.


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 6/6


Favourite tracks : Advent of Panurge, Raconteur Troubadour, Knots, The Boys in the Band, Dog's Life


Additional Notes :

This album has also been reviewed by Boo Boo in Boo Boo's Prog Stash thread and was mentioned in Comus' thread Comus' 1001 albums you should listen to before you die. Also, if you like Octopus, check out Anteater's review of Gentle Giant's second album Acquiring the Taste from 1971 in his journal.

Panzerpappa - Koralrevens Klagesang (2006)
 

Introduction :

Members :
Steinar Børve: saxophone and keyboards
Trond Gjellum: drums and percussion
Anders Krabberød: bassguitar and Chapman stick
Jarle G. Storløkken: guitars and accordion

Panzerpappa is a prog act from from Oslo, Norway. In their own words, the band plays "progressive rock with a friendly face" but is more accurately described as RIO/Avant-Prog with influences stretching back to 70s bands like Henry Cow, King Crimson and Samla Mammas Manna with a dash of Canterbury like Hatfield and the North.

The band was started up by drummer Trond Gjellum in 1996 and then gained members, most notably Steinar Børve on Saxophone and keyboards. Their debut "Passer Gullfisk" was released in 2000, but the original lineup was not to last. After a lineup change in their second release, the band lost both then guitarist and bass player at the start of 2002. However, lost members are quickly replaced when Trond plays with guitarist Jarle G. Storløkken and bassist Anders Krabberød in a backing band for Canterbury-legend Richard Sinclair during march that same year. Both are offered a place in the band and since, that lineup has produced two more albums, "Farlig Vandring" released in 2004 and "Koralrevens Klagesang" (lament of the coral fox) from 2006.

My own relationship with Panzerpappa doesn't really stretch that far back. All the members are academics and as a group, they sport competance in musicology, theoretical astro physics, social anthropology, philosophy and biology. It was actually during my own biology bachelor that I got to know Anders Krabberød, their current bassist. We both started our biology studies in 2005, but ironically, I didn't really know Panzerpappa before I listened to their last album late last year. That last is the 2006 album "Koralrevens Klagesang" which offers a guest appearance by our much beloved Richard Sinclair (Caravan / Hatfield and the North / Camel) and it got some highly favourable reviews after it's release. However, avant-prog's lack of mainstream appeal keeps it a somewhat hidden treasure whose riches are mostly available for those with a specific interest in the genre.


Detailed Review :

The album starts with what feels like an intro. Koralrevens Klagesang I opens with some mysterious sounds but eventually, brass fades in to a mournful tune lasting for a couple of minutes until Koralrevens Klagesang II comes on. Prog looms as the music turns more chaotic and unpredictable, but it's full of energy and buried within here are some amazingly effective hooks. It's overall feel is mysterious and perhaps slightly sinister. Kantonesisk Kanotur (cantonesian canoe trip) is immediately immersive with a gentle start on keyboards and guitar before a wonderful little earwig flute melody weaves it's way into the music. Not long after, we get the first thematic shift and what follows is a little prog epic where structures shift from tangible to untangible and various melodies and hooks come and go. It feels strong yet quite subtle at the same time and features many hair-raising moments of delight. Excellent!

Apraxia continues the mysterious mood in a slightly more serene direction and, probably because it's so fresh in memory, actually reminds me just a little a bit of Crystal Silence from Return to Forever's debut. What I guess might be vibraphone, guitar and bass form a structure with a more free and slightly melancholic saxophone layering melodies on top. Acoustic guitar join in towards the end for a delightful result, making this song the most relaxing of the bunch. Snill Sang på Bånd is a departure from it's predecessors and is cheerful and full of energy like a prog version of your kid's 10th birthday. It reaches some kind of epic climax before we get a thematic shift to something more noir-jazzy and it suddenly sounds more like your theme to browsing clubs in New Orleans. I love this part! Before it's over, we get a quick return to the fun at the start. Overall, there's a lot of contrasts in this song and it's a little more in your face than what comes before it, but they somehow make it work very well.

Yet more mystery awaits on Etyde which opens with guitar and keyboard alternating on a little picky riff of sorts which along with drums and bass serves as a platform for more saxophone on top. When the song is nearly midway, it becomes more sinister and sounds like it could be a theme to something called "Attack of the giant mutant space slug". Sax and a wonderful flute (I love flute) chase the spooky bits away before it's over for a happy ending .. although a return of the mysterious guitar just at the very end may hint at the possibility of a sequel.

Vintervake is the only song with lyrics and they are sung by none other than Canterbury's Richard Sinclair. The track makes for such a delicious listening, I get shivers everytime I listen to it. Richard does not steal the show entirely, Panzerpappa's performance on the track is confident and it's definetly their song you're listening to. However, there are some different themes flying around here, but the best are still the parts with sung lyrics. If I knew what they were, I'd sing along. Vintervake has a subtle beauty that is rare and canterbury appreciaters should definetly look this one up.

Frenetisk Frenologi (For Nybegynnere) (Frenetic Frenology for beginners?) is the album's longest track and is of the more playful and fun sort. There's certainly a lot going on in different layers, you have the sax doing much of the melody with drums and bass forming a solid foundation, but you also have guitar, keyboards and other percussion instruments making their appearances somewhere in the middle of it all. It's a rich listen and you might have to close your eyes and tap your foot to soak it all up. Thematic shifts make the song much more chaotic and we even get some aggressive sounding moments with distorted electric guitar building up to a climax about halfway after which everything becomes quiet .. Then sax comes back in to a background of what sounds like wind and some strange distortive noise. At this point, the song has a somewhat mournful post-apocalyptic feel and in my mind's eye I see dust blowing around empty concrete buildings. It doesn't take too long before the playful theme from the start makes it's return. More thematic shifts happen with some lovely performances on guitar, flute and piano before it's all over.

Like nr. 1 serves as an intro to the album, Koralrevens Klagesang III serves as an outro although it's a wonderful little song that would stand confidently also outside of this album. It plays somewhat on the theme of the first, but this time with a lot of acoustic guitar and with a more medieval folky flavour than the first. It's a melancholic and serene little guitar tune that could lull you to sleep if you let it. Lovely!


Review Summary :

At first, I didn't really want to review this one because my friendship with one of the band members might put my credibility as a reviewer at stake and there's also the chance he might read this which scares me a little bit. However, after a chat with Anteater who also suggested I do this, I realized I'm not the only one who thinks the album is worthy of praise around here and, seeing as it has all the weird norwegian names and so on, it made sense that I would be the one to do it.

Stepping back a bit and looking at Koralrevens Klagesang in it's entirety, it's main impressions to me are melancholy, mystery, moments of beauty but also the odd sinister, spooky sounds like you'll find in other RIO acts like Univers Zero. True to their own friendly description, there's also a sprinkling of cheerfulness and fun. Performances are superb all round and the album sounds amazing with rock-solid production. There's a lot of instruments being played over the tracks but they all stand out as clearly as they should in the mix and to me, it all sounds right. There's plenty of warm sounds and lush reverberations floating around. One thing that strikes me as weird is that listening to it again with a slightly more analytical approach, I'm surprised at how vivid some of the imagery the album conjures up is. It makes me wonder a bit why several of the songs have such nonsensical titles (frenetisk frenologi is a good example). However, their slightly whimsical approach is part of Panzerpappa's charm and it's nice to see again that something that sounds so accomplished doesn't have to be 100% serious all the time.

As an avant-prog album, I think it's quite accessible. A lot of it's appeal will be subtle and may take a few listenings to get, but where some albums in the genre may feel exclusive, this one will probably have an instant appeal which will only grow over time. No, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but for those who like a little prog and know a little RIO, Koralrevens Klagesang is a little treasure just waiting to be discovered.

Panzerpappa is a group with highly skilled and competent musicians and Koralrevens Klagesang is (as far as I know) their finest moment yet. This is actually the best norwegian album I've heard in a long time.


Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 6/6