Reviews by kuvien

The 70s are running out of prog steam, but Renaissance has a couple more good albums in them. This is one of them, relishing the symphonic feel of the music, grounded in the orchestral bits and creating weightlessness in the keyboards.

Beautiful and dramatic vocals over a swelling symphony of prog. It overdoes it in spots, but a great album regardless.

Sun on your face, wind in your hair, and wide open spaces of green...until suddenly it’s all gone. This band is great at closing the windows and the sky, shutting you in and blocking out the sun. It’s all in how they craft their storytelling imagery. This has nothing to do with the music and is just a curious musing of mine, but I wonder why they look so happy on the UK album art and so angry on the US art. Maybe the sun westered more and shone in their eyes, making them squint and just appear angry.

Yall tedious.

happysad plug.dj-core that makes you kill yourself because, hey, there's really nothing else for you to do

When I was a kid, “The Seven Chinese Brothers” was my favorite storybook. Water imagery and dark themes are often linked in art, and here it’s no difference. It must be part of the human consciousness, that inscrutable unknown that surrounds us, even when we cannot see it. I always feed a touch sad when I listen to an R.E.M. album. I guess it’s because of the texture of songs like “Camera”.

This is the gateway to the 90s for a lot of people. It helped define the decade, evoking the illimitable joy of "Near Wild Heaven". This album is all over the place as the band is trying to figure out what direction it wants to go in after having enjoyed a stellar 80s. I guess these tunes are more radio friendly, which is kind of what they’re talking about in the opening track. I even enjoy the instrumental track, “Endgame”, wherein Stipe goes fa la la la la la la la la la. I love the name of this album, too, since it was the name they chose because they hadn’t chosen a title yet, were out of time, and the album was being sent to print.

"Fall on Me" is the clear highlight, what with its rich, layered vocals, sung with Mills' purposely emotionless vocals offsetting Stipe's passion. "Underneath the Bunker" is a short but welcome left turn away from the jangle jangle of the pop, adding a bit more spice and swagger at the end of dinner. And supper wraps up with a tune that sounds like a 60s pop throwback.

I've fallen asleep while reading plenty of times, but I never felt like I was being pulled into sleep by gravity. However, falling asleep to music is a different matter: the pull is a strong, magical force, bringing me down into a faery realm. I could just hop the train with the mysterious Driver 8 and go wherever he's going. It's someplace out of town. An escape. Because of the themes being steeped not only in the life of the American south but also hinting at history and folklore, this is a very American album.

Most of the music in my collection I discovered in my 30s and 40s. This isn’t to say I threw away the music of my youth. There just isn’t very much of it. This album is one such piece of music, so it’s one of the few that brings back strong memories of a time that I don’t actually ever think of normally. I don’t have much to say about this album other than that I still think—as I did in my youth—that someone is calling my name in the background of “The One I Love”.

What a wonderful little EP! Clear, jangly opening that is the sonic embodiment of R.E.M. from the very first note. The only song I knew going into this one was "Gardening at Night", though I'd not heard this live version. So much bouncy, creative energy from beginning to end.

This music is retarded, in the medical sense of the word. 2021 album??

Next time you're at a pub quiz and they ask you where precisely electronic music and folk music meet, say "Occitania", where drone meets the recitation of Medieval poetry, where tape music is the bedrock upon which old cultures are reborn.

Every music nerd's dream. The artist, the demo, what Reed did, how he did it, and how it was found. I'm just going to briefly retell the story that has been printed in various music rags already. When Lou Reed died in 2013, they were cleaning out / cataloging the detritus of his life when they came across a sealed package. The address was Reed's parents' place, and it was postmarked May 11, 1965. Which means whatever was inside was made before that date. Earlier that year, Cale and Reed sat down to record some songs, with the most basic of acoustic instrumentation, and when they finished, Reed mailed the reel to himself, saying it was the cheapest way for him to copyright the songs. He never opened it. What lay therein were the earliest known versions of beloved VU and Reed songs such as "Heroin", "I'm Waiting for the Man", and "Men of Good Fortune", the latter one appearing with different arrangement and lyrics on his solo album, Berlin. A lot of people see this as a music artifact, something curious but not necessarily something to return to to enjoy for its own sake. I disagree. But that's probably because I love what's going on here, just voice and guitar and harmonica, Reed trying out a bit of Dylan worship before he goes on to help create The Velvet Underground.

I'm gonna just assume Lou purposely took out all the charm of the original songs, arranged them as generic guitar rock, and sang lazily as a big fuck-you to the audience. This is trash, and I support Lou shitting on his fans.

Lou doesn't know what "wherefore" means. One star.

You know the expression, "Never meet your heroes"? Well, here's a new one for you kids: "Never discog-dive your favorite artists."

When it comes to making an album like this--stepping away from original songs to delve into trad folk--the magic comes in song selection and arrangement. The field is wide open, which means one might be paralyzed by choice, but this duo does an excellent job at choosing a dozen songs that, through instrument choice and passionate delivery, evoke that old-time Appalachia feel. I've heard almost all these songs done by other folk artists over the years, but here they still sound fresh. Again, it's all about interpretation. One thing they do nicely is how they, on four occasions, meld songs together in tempo and tone.

I dig this album, though my wife thinks it lacks teeth. She likes music that is more testosterone-driven, but laid-back little gems like this are right up my alley. There's some lyrical wishy-washyness in spots, but overall this is as pleasant a listening experience as one can have on a lazy day with nothing to do. Although every track has vocals except one, I want to share my favorite track, which just happens to be an instrumental. Next time you're driving and not in a hurry to get anywhere, play "April's Song".

Mellow, wholesome music. Not a giant album in the 70s prog field, but definitely a refreshing respite and change of pace in its understated tones. This is a pleasant hike through pastoral hills.