Big Ears

It looks like I am the white rabbit.

1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?

I liked it immediately and found it similar, although not identical, to the original lineup, with high voices, sparkling guitar and bright keyboards.

2. What did you think of the opening tracks?

With Oh My God, It Bites! start as they intend to continue with sharp Yes-like harmonies, bright keyboards and tasteful guitar playing. The vocals are inclined to be high and the pace is continually fast. Previously, John Mitchell had been employed by bands like Arena as a guitarist first and singer second, but he has been a hidden vocal talent. Like his famous predecessor, Francis Dunnery, he sings in a high register and has an excellent voice - you never hear him sing out of tune. Also like Dunnery he is an outstanding, but slightly understated, guitar player. The pace does not slow for Ghosts, with John Mitchell sounding like Ray Wilson of Stiltskin on Scared of Ghosts and even uses the phrase, 'Walking in Your Footsteps,' from the latter's second single. Ghosts has a catchy synthesizer melody and an adept guitar solo. The third track, Playground, is a marginally slower ballad, with symphonic keyboards and pounding drums from Bob Dalton. He is a fine drummer, never too showy nor shuffling, but always appropriate to Beck's keyboards and Mitchell's guitar.

3. What did you think of the later tracks?

The band does seem to run out of steam in the second half of the album with slower and more sparse arrangements. It is still full of ideas and John Mitchell is a revelation.

4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions?

John Mitchell was known more as a guitarist with Arena and took on lead vocals for It Bites! He is, however, an excellent singer and never sings out of tune. His guitar playing is nimble throughout.

5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not?

Both the music and vocals are exemplary.

6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?

The album keeps improving, the more I listen. My feeling though, is that, in keeping with many modern bands, The Tall Ships album is too long and there is some repetition of the slow voice/ piano/ synth passages in the latter part of the album. Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs said that he felt compelled to fill the 75 minutes of a CD, but admitted that he could not come up with the material. It Bites!, like many others, seem to have soldiered on regardless.

7. What did you think of the lyrical content?

Rather curious. Lights is a catchy song carried along with a particularly high voice, sparring guitar and keyboards, and chorus in a stirring manner akin to Big Country, but it has the line, 'So let’s go out tonight, I feel the space between us.' Great Disasters is an upbeat song, but has a downbeat lyric. It follows the title track, which I understand is about death.

8. Did you like the instrumental parts?

Yes. The middle instrumental section of Memory of Water is quite heavy with a characteristically speedy guitar solo. The title track, opens with soaring harmonised guitar and keyboards, reminiscent of Dave Flett-era Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

9. What did you think of the production?

Very clear and sharp, just like the original albums.

10. How well do you already know the band/artist?

I know the first three albums pretty well, although I don't own Eat Me in St. Louis. I remember it being in Woolworths' sale bins not long after it was released. Now it is as rare as hens' teeth.

11. What sub-genre, if any, would you assign this music to?

Neo-progressive, although there are elements of seventies progressive rock, grunge and modern progressive. It Bites! also take in the high voiced bands of the seventies, like Pilot, 10cc and City Boy.

12. On repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?

More.

13. What would you class as your favourite track, if you have one?

Great Disasters is a small masterpiece. It has a scat-***-nonsense vocal motif, along the lines of, 'Dumbri umbri ayoh, dumbri umbri ayoh, ee oh ho ayoh o-oh oh oh, oh ayoh o-oh oh oh,' reminiscent of The Police, while the arrangement is similar to other seventies high vocal/ bright guitar groups like 10cc, Pilot and City Boy. There is even a touch of Billy Joel in the lyrics and it ends on synth like an A-ha song produced by Alan Tarney. This is the track to which I keep returning . . . and returning. I need not bother, as it has taken permanent residency in my head! I have read there is a radio edit, but have not been able to track it down.

14. And the one you liked least?

There isn't one particular track, although I prefer the earlier fast tracks to the later slow ones.

15. Did the fact that this album is a debut/sophomore/middle period or later period allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated?

Although there have been a number of reunions with different frontmen, this feels like a comeback. All credit to John Mitchell for taking on lead vocals and playing guitar to the extent that I did not really miss Dunnery. Having said this, I wish he (Dunner) would sort himself out.

16. Are you now looking forward to hearing other albums by the band/artist?

Yes, I would like to hear the single edit of Great Disasters as well as a good quality version of the Japanese bonus track, These Words.

17. Did you get, thematically, the idea behind the album if there was one?

There is a thread of death and longing, but some of the strange paradoxes do not make much sense to me.

18. Did the album end well?

This is England, the longest piece at over thirten minutes, is intended as the magnum opus. It is another song in the second half of the album with a sparse intro, this time a quiet glockenspiel-sounding synthesizer and voice. The first part brings to mind Prefab Sprout, particularly in the voice, yet the pulsing keyboards, spiky guitar and punchy drums are all It Bites! At around the five minute mark, Beatles harmonies and cello sound introduce the 'This is England and you love me,' line, followed by psychedelic wurlitzer-style keyboards and a surreal spoken word passage. The final third (at about ten minutes) has almost a hymn in, 'There once was a vicar who walked in this garden . . . ,' Linking all the parts of This is England are the lyrics, but, otherwise it sounds like three distinct songs, and serves as a prototype of the band's next studio record, a concept album, Map of the Past (2012).

19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?

I feel it needed editting, especially in the latter stages.

20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?

Yes, the album is cohesive, although This is England should have been three separate tracks (imo).

Overall Album Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

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My Journal: Rabbiting On