What does it sound like?:

Funny things, moods – some days I’m convinced Misplaced Childhood is Marillion’s finest hour, others I’m equally certain it’s this one, the final album of the Fish era, originally released in 1987. It’s an album that contains some of the band’s best work, Warm Wet Circles, Sugar Mice, Slainte Mhath, and also ironically one of my least favourite songs, Incommunicado, which always struck me as sounding rather like a Who cast off. It’s certainly an album that is best consumed in one sitting though, as one continuous piece of music. This grandiose box comprises four cds plus a bluray disc, although there’s not a huge amount of unreleased material on offer. What do you get? The original album remixed, a cd of demos and a two cd live set recorded in Edinburgh in December 1987 on the band’s final tour with Fish, some of which was used on 1988’s The Thieving Magpie live album. It’s a good gig for sure, spanning the band’s entire career and showcasing good chunks of both Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws, and the band are on top form, as you’d expect playing in front of their ecstatic home » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Jean-Michel Jarre – yet another artist who I lost touch with as the years went by. I had Oxygene, Magnetic Fields, Equinoxe and even Concert in China, but my interest in subsequent releases gradually dwindled. Jarre turned seventy this year, and is still selling out huge venues across the world with his spectacular shows, headlining Coachella earlier this year. This new album ties in with the fortieth anniversary of the release of the original Equinoxe album, one of his most successful records, although the connections are actually fairly tenuous. Although you can pick up the odd musical phrase or theme that echoes the original, this is by and large a completely separate stand alone piece of work. The overriding themes are those of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on society and on humanity. Of course it’s not easy to convey that in the form of instrumental electronic music, so a big leap of imagination is required. The better pieces, and there are a surprisingly good number of them actually, sound like Blade Runner era Vangelis, which is no bad thing at all, moody, evocative and futuristic, and there are some very catchy sections » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It’s the turn of Tull’s 1968 debut album to get a 50th anniversary makeover, again performed in exemplary fashion by Steven Wilson. I have to say this isn’t one of my favourite Tull works, indeed it’s one that only gets a very occasional play. There’s none of the prog influences that would surface in their classic seventies albums, this being a more conventional sixties bluesy sound with jazz influences thrown in. It is of course the only album to feature Mick Abrahams on guitar before his departure to form Blodwyn Pig, and features his vocals on Move On Alone, the only Tull song not to have Ian Anderson taking the lead. A Song For Jeffrey is perhaps the most enduring piece, one that featured in their live shows for many years. The three cd plus dvd set also rounds up various associated recordings and B sides from that era, some of which are previously unreleased, plus two Top Gear Sessions from 1968. For completists, the third cd also has both the original 1968 stereo and mono mixes of the album. The DVD features all of the above mixed, due to limitations with the original » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The date: 25 November 1994. The venue: Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami. The occasion: The Stones are in town, dropping by on their latest mammoth globe straddling trek, promoting their Voodoo Lounge album. Parts of this show have been released before, but this two cd plus dvd set captures the whole shebang for the first time. That means a further ten songs have been added, and the correct running order restored. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a bonus of another five songs not performed at this show, taken from an earlier gig at Giants Stadium. Of course, a good deal of their set list has been fairly constant for decades now, for better or for worse, but it’s always great to hear the likes of Tumbling Dice, Honky Tonk Women and Sympathy For The Devil, and you simply can’t argue with the closing quintet of Street Fighting Man, Start Me Up, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, Brown Sugar and Jumping Jack Flash. It’s great also to hear some excellent songs that don’t get as much limelight as they deserve – Shattered, Beast of Burden, Doo Doo Doo Heartbreaker, All Down The Line and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Back in the early seventies, a collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra was still a pretty groundbreaking thing to do. This effort, recorded in November 1971 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, is one of the best representations of that genre. The original release featured just five pieces, about half the record being taken up by the lengthy In Held ‘Twas In I, which really gave both band and orchestra room to stretch their legs. This is the band’s most epic and ambitious track – I’ve still no idea what it’s all about, and at almost twenty minutes long it’s hard work at times, but it still manages to hold your attention. However, I think the shorter pieces actually work better overall – there are excellent interpretations of their more theatrical compositions such as Conquistador and A Salty Dog, where the classical and rock elements really gel. The album is supplemented by five extra tracks, one being the B side of the Conquistador single, Luskus Delph, while the others are rehearsals for the concert itself, two of which are previously unreleased. However, for me the original album still stands alone without these extras » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

In my long ago teenage years, two of the first ‘proper’ rock albums I acquired were Razamanaz and Loud & Proud by Nazareth, inspired I think by seeing them perform Bad Bad Boy or maybe Broken Down Angel on Top of The Pops. Of course they followed those with their epic rendition of Joni Mitchell’s This Flight Tonight, surely one of those rare occasions where a cover version transcends the original. I rather lost track of the band for a while, but picked them up again later in the decade with the excellent Hair of The Dog album (which included a hit cover of Love Hurts), and the non – album single My White Bicycle. After that, we parted ways and it’s many years since I listened to any of their stuff.This three cd set is a distillation of the recent massive box set containing all their recorded output, which is surely only for the hard core fan. Listening to this set brought back plenty of memories for sure, but really the first cd is vastly superior to the other two, as it concentrates on their prime early seventies work. The second and third » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Igor Stravinsky composed the music for this tale of a soldier returning from war who meets and subsequently makes a deal with the devil, in 1917. To commemorate the upcoming centenary of the end of World War One, and of course Remembrance Day, Roger Waters has resurrected this piece, adapting the text and taking on the roles of the three principal characters, The Narrator, The Soldier and The Devil. The music is played by a small classical ensemble from the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, who first performed this piece with Waters ten years ago. It wasn’t until 2014 though that their music was recorded, while Waters’ narration it seems, looking at the recording locations, was recorded in down time on his European tour earlier this year. I was expecting this to be primarily a musical piece with spoken interludes, but actually it’s more like a radio play or audio book, with relatively brief musical passages interspersed throughout the narrative. There’s no new Waters music here or even any singing of course, and I suppose you could say this sits alongside his previous classical excursion, Ca Ira, in his canon. It is, however, much more » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Another ridiculously good release in this ongoing series of live sets. This time we visit Mexico City in July of last year, the results of which are captured on this 3cd plus bluray set, which, need I add, is accompanied by a super booklet, which incorporates extracts from Robert Fripp’s diaries.. Now an eight piece, the band power through a fascinating and fantastic set, incorporating pretty much all you’d hope to hear in a Crimson show. It never fails to amaze me how these familiar pieces differ in each performance, the music constantly evolving. The cds are compiled from five nights of shows to give a perfect theoretical set list, and the third cd is further augmented by six pieces taken from soundboard recordings from gigs in early 2018, including material new to the set lists. All this is reproduced in surround sound on the bluray, together with over two hours of concert footage, which is expertly filmed and really worth watching. There’s only one previously unheard piece, the brief percussion led Catalytikc No 9, but it’s always a pleasure to hear staples such as Starless alongside eighties material such as Neurotica and Indiscipline. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

There were some fine rock/metal live albums in the late seventies and early eighties. Live After Death, Live and Dangerous and Strangers In The Night spring to mind, but of course they were all doubles. The Eagle Has Landed was also intended to be a two record set, until the record company nixed the idea, leaving us with a good but slightly unsatisfying single album, a real missed opportunity you feel. Of course, in the cd era it was subsequently expanded with an extra half dozen songs from earlier in the tour, but annoyingly not from the same show. It’s this version that has been re-released as the final instalment in the current round of hardback book type reissues. It’s still a damn fine listen, capturing the band riding the crest of the NWOBHM wave and full of youthful punkish energy. All the classics you’d expect are here, 747, Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm Of The Law, Princess of The Night, Never Surrender, etc on the ‘original’ part of the cd, while the subsequent additions feature Dallas 1PM, which they really ought to have included on the original set, And The Band Played On, » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Of the current crop of ‘new’ prog bands, Big Big Train have to be the frontrunners – no arguments allowed! This two cd live set, culled from their three shows at Cadogan Hall last year, cherry picks the best version of each song to give an optimal record of their repertoire. It concentrates on their four most recent albums, sixteen selections, and pretty much includes everything you hoped they’d play. Personally, I prefer the longer songs where the band really have the opportunity to spread their musical wings – Brave Captain and A Mead Hall in Winter being prime examples of great writing combined with superb musicianship. However, the highlights for me are two personal favourites, East Coast Racer and Victorian Brickwork, epic performances of some of their best works. Of the (relatively) shorter songs, Swan Hunter stands out, and by the way that song has also been released separately on a five track ep, including two previously unreleased pieces. The whole thing is beautifully packaged in a cd sized hardback book with a generous seventy two page booklet.

What does it all *mean*?

A fine souvenir for the fan, but also would work » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

One of the unexpected successes of last year was Rick Wakeman’s Piano Portraits album, buoyed by his interpretation of Life On Mars no doubt. Thus we have the inevitable sequel, in similar vein, a mixture of new and old, originals and covers, classical and pop/rock. Let me say right at the outset that I’m a big fan of Rick’s playing and his live shows – until you see him at close quarters it’s easy to forget what a great pianist he really is, something that’s easily overlooked amongst all the jokes and anecdotes. Of course, he’s best known for his seventies work, and here you get And You And I, the almost inevitable Roundabout and Jane Seymour, all impeccably played, but none as good as the originals for me – but then again, the folk who this is aimed at may not even know the originals from over forty years ago! The cover versions are a bit hit and miss – While My Guitar Gently Weeps works well, likewise (a left field inclusion) Bowie’s Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud, a real blast from the past. Others don’t fare so well, The Boxer for example, » Continue Reading.