Donnerstag, März 16, 2006

my personal best music lps (part 3)

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH AND YOUNG - DÉJÀ VU (1970)
a great piece of music history, one of the most a-waited records of all times. american folk music at it's best. and four legendary musicians at work. the most amazing thing about this lp is that you can clearly distinguish every piece of every one of the four. although they form a band, each one is a music genius in his own right...

FOCUS - FOCUS 3 (1972)
the richest sound by those highly skilled dutch musicians. a few 70's classic pieces are also here: 'sylvia', 'elspeth of nottingham', and of course the title song.

URIAH HEEP - THE MAGICIAN'S BIRTHDAY (1972)
i dare say this album displays the richness of their musical ideas in the best possible way. the crew was at their artistic peak, still with very clear english vocals by david byron and heavy bass riffs by gary thain. both don't stick around here with us anymore...

JETHRO TULL - MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY (1975)
another ian anderson's classic. beautifully folk-rocky, with great melodic lines mixed-in like raisins. and a strange medieval castle atmosphere...

AMERICA - HISTORY GREATEST HITS (1975)
i must have heard it at the end of 70s for the first time, and it contained all of their best music pieces, with 'ventura highway', 'i need you', 'muskrat love' and many others. every time i felt down'n out, it helped me thru'...

EAGLES - HOTEL CALIFORNIA (1976)
they got me with this. i can't get rid of the title piece for decades already. it'll be haunting me up to my end, perhaps ;) sometimes i can see images here reminding me of 'the shining' by stanley kubrick. by the way, listen to the unplugged version of the title piece, too. it's worth every second spent on it.

ALAN PARSONS' PROJECT - TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION EDGAR ALLAN POE (1976)
ok, the sequel 'i, robot' may be more melodious and compact one, but this one has an advantage: it's about the work of one of my favourite poets and writers - e. a. poe. i remember the sensation of some ghastly eternal rhythm while reading his 'raven' (which is for me the best poem from the west hemisphere) or of a familiar loneliness in his novels. eric wolfson knows how to pick up the themes for his music. and alan parsons knows how to wrap it up in soundscapes...

UFO - NO HEAVY PETTING (1976)
this record accompanied my wildest times at the university. 'belladonna', 'on with the action', and 'martian landscape' make up the highlights here.

TANGERINE DREAM - RICOCHET (1976)
a german classic. anybody still remembers bjoern borg against jimmmy 'jimbo' connors at wimbledon rendered in slow motion with a haunting 'ricochet' theme as a background music?? a pathetic thrill goes down the spine...

KRAFTWERK - TRANS-EUROPA-EXPRESS (1977)
well, an all-time legend from duesseldorf. elegance and decadence. and so perfectly and beautifully impersonal... russian constructivists from 1920s would have been delighted.

GARY BROOKER - NO MORE FEAR OF FLYING (1979)
the good ol' gary has always the right grip on the keys on his keyboard. and his vocals remind me of some forgotten times, back in far past, where the days had still 36 hours each. 'say it ain't so, joe' and 'give me something to remember you by' have once accompanied one of my feeling storms back in the 80s ;)

DIRE STRAITS - MAKIN' MOVIES (1980)
an incomparable sound by mark knopfler and co. definitely my favourite one. each song goes under my skin... but don't get me wrong: 'wild west end' from their debut lp and 'once upon a time in the west' from the sequel 'communique' belong to my evergreens, too :)

BRONSKI BEAT - THE AGE OF CONSENT (1984)
ok, i'm no great fan of jimmy sommerville's vocal style, but one must frankly say: the compositions and the atmosphere here are astonishingly good.

PETER GABRIEL - SO (1986)
this album doesn't have the brilliance and the energy of musical ideas of his first solo lp, simply called 'peter gabriel 1', but peter used to be like an old wine. the older he gets, the more ripe and versatile the bouquet is... and 'red rain' is also brilliant, no doubt.

DEVIL DOLL - DIES IRAE (1996)
a very sinister and dark oeurve by this italian-slovenian co-operation, managed by the mastermind mr. doctor. this is the music that can bring you down, if you only let it for a while. so watch out!...

EMILIE SIMON - EMILIE SIMON (2003)
she's like a delicate and beautiful flower for me. and her music sense makes her appear not out-of-this-world. when you dive in into this fairy tale, you don't wanna go out back into our gray reality...