Queen - Queen I (1973)

Tracklist:
1. Keep Yourself Alive
2. Doing All Right
3. Great King Rat
4. My Fairy King
5. Liar
6. The Night Comes Down
7. Modern Times Rock 'n Roll
8. Son & Daughter
9. Jesus
10. Seven Seas of Rhye



In the Beginning... – 7,3/10

Queen, the legendary band, best known for their smash hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” and later years, never started out as a hit band. In fact, as only true fans know, their first few albums were quite heavy rock albums. The first ever official Queen album doesn’t have one song that become a fairly big hit either, and that is probably why non-Queen fans would never notice this album, sticking to the pop hits like “I Want To Break Free” or “Another One Bites to Dust”. In fact, those people don’t know what they’re missing. They say ignorance is bliss, but that’s certainly not the case with Queen I.

This first album actually sounds like a potpourri of different music styles at times. Where “Keep Yourself Alive” features hard rock at its catchiest, “Doing All Right” begins as a gentle ballad and then suddenly without logic the rhythm shifts and evolves into a hard rock riff. “Great King Rat”, “My Fairy King” and “Liar” show the more progressive side of Queen, and “Son & Daughter” features more Deep Purple-ish riffing. It’s clear that this album is not yet fully drenched in the Queen sound everybody knows, except for Brian May’s unique guitar sound and Freddie Mercury’s one-of-a-kind voice of course. This release does sound quite good, especially the first half. “Great King Rat” is my absolute favorite together with “Liar”. They are two heavy songs with progressive touches, such as the lots of content the song carries. Unique song structures, multiple themes and sudden changes. If the whole album was filled with pieces like these it would’ve been one of Queen’s best releases.

You feel it coming, there are also some downsides. “Son & Daughter” features this Purple-ish feel throughout, and Purple is great, but doesn’t fit on a Queen album. The chorus goes more towards a Queen sound, but it’s all average at best. Then there is “Jesus”. The track tends to be nice, but nothing special. The break takes the song to another level though in a fast and heavy guitar solo. This second half of the album is mainly weaker due to these two tracks, but also because of the lots of short good tracks. “Modern Times Rock ‘n Roll” is a great song, but it’s so damn short. It’s the first song to feature Roger Taylor on vocals. Then the ending song “Seven Seas of Rhye” is the instrumental version of the one that’s on Queen II, and it’s slightly slower and a lot shorter as well. It’s a nice listen, but again so short. “The Night Comes Down” is the only fully enjoyable track after “Liar”, but still it doesn’t compare to the first half of the album. Perhaps I’m demanding too much, but they set the standard very high with songs like “Liar” and “Great King Rat” that they make the lesser songs seem really bad, while they perhaps aren’t bad at all.

In short, Queen I is more of a progressive hard rock album than the more commercial Queen everybody knows through hits. This doesn’t mean the quality of the songs is less. Just like any Queen album it has got great epics and less good songs, but here it’s all a bit roughed up. Highly recommended for the Queen fan, not for those who are new to Queen, they should check out A Day at the Races or Queen II first.

Strongest tracks: “Great King Rat”, “Liar” and “My Fairy King”.
Weakest tracks: “Jesus” and “Son & Daughter”.

Kayak - See See the Sun (1973)

Tracklist:
1. Reason For It All
2. Lyrics
3. Mouldy Wood
4. Lovely Luna
5. Hope For A Life
6. Ballet of the Cripple
7. Forever Is A Lonely Thought
8. Mammoth
9. See See the Sun
10. Still Try To Write A Book [*]
11. Give It A Name [*]


Playfully Progressive – 7,8/10

Kayak’s first album was arguably the weirdest they would ever do. Despite having the greatest front cover of all, it’s also the only album featuring such playful use of odd time signatures and theme changes. Experts were soon comparing Kayak to the world’s finest progbands like Yes or Genesis, and the Dutch were proudly dubbing them the Dutch progrockers. Overall, this album is very weird. When I first heard it there were question marks popping out of my head like you see in those cartoons. How on earth could an album be so radio unfriendly, and at the same time include two of the band’s greatest hits to date?

This album reads ‘progressive’ in each and every aspect. Where we tend to have a catchy poppy theme on “Reason for It All”, we have these odd vocals by Max Werner and Ton Scherpenzeel to surprise us. Hitsingle “Lyrics” features very impressive pianos and a really odd time signature in the verses, not commonly found in singles. Probably the oddest song on the album is “Mouldy Wood”, it flies from odd theme to odd theme, with a cut time signature here and there and weird vocal lines, and a sudden epic guitar melody, and then we have it all together, before the finish with the epic guitar melody. It’s one of the most fascinating songs I ever heard and presents a very playful Kayak, trying a bit too hard to be progressive, but succeeding nonetheless. This pleasant line of surprises and oddities is continued throughout “Hope for a Life”, “Ballet of the Cripple” and b-side and CD bonustrack “Still Try To Write a Book”. Second hitsingle and live classic to this day “Mammoth” features some experimenting with a barrel organ, resulting in a very unique sound, but the song might be a little too poppy in sound.

There are some more mellow sides on this album as well. “Lovely Luna” is an eight-minute piece that I have yet to understand fully. We have Pim Koopman singing here, instead of the usual Max Werner, and the song begins with very silent verses that take an eternity to finish, and then we have a lengthy slightly uninteresting guitar riff, before we get to the verses again. I think this song should’ve been cut down a lot and perhaps even left off the album, I don’t like it. “Forever Is a Lonely Thought” also features Koopman on vocals, but this one is a lot more enjoyable. It also begins silent, but has more active and more fascinating arrangements, overall more relying on pianos than anything else, as on the whole album. Official album closer and title track “See See the Sun” is an epic piece of music, driven by pianos and keyboards. This song is a great example of the great vocal arrangements Kayak has, due to having more capable singers in the band than just one. Even though this is not unique, see Styx or Queen, Kayak makes unique use of it, subtly simulating echoes. The CD album is closed by former b-side “Give It a Name”, which is, though very discouraging at first, a very relaxing and funny song and a brilliant piece of music. It features Koopman on vocals again and features spoken verses, accompanied by a cheery Hammond organ melody.

All in all, See See the Sun is Kayak in its earliest form. It sounds very playful and very progressive in every aspect, something which will not be found on later albums. This makes the album unique and with it Kayak represents the Netherlands on the progressive rock scene. If you a fan of Kayak and you don’t know this album, you should check it out, for you will be pleasantly surprised with each song.

Strongest tracks: “Mouldy Wood”, “Hope For a Life”, “See See the Sun” and “Still Try to Write a Book”.
Weakest track: “Lovely Luna”.

High Tide Formation - Fluffy [Single] (1970)

Tracklist:
1. Fluffy
2. White Walls











A cheery rarity – 7/10

High Tide Formation, though nobody in the here and now would know them, was the band Pim Koopman and Ton Scherpenzeel had played in before they founded Kayak in 1972. While they played guitars and bass respectively, they were accompanied by Ron van der Werf on drums and Chiel van Praag on piano. In the short existence of the group they released a sole single “Fluffy”, written by Van Praag, with b-side “White Walls”, written by Kayak mastermind Scherpenzeel. I must say, kept in mind that this is a kind of an early form of Kayak, it sounds rather surprising and not at all like they would later.

On their sole single, “Fluffy”, which is an instrumental piano-oriented track, based around a catchy rock ‘n roll melody. It really sounds 60s through and through. It’s really swinging and the melody is repeated on guitar also and features some more variations of the theme before they decide it’s time to call it a day. It’s not a very mind-blowing piece of music, but an enjoyable listen nonetheless. “White Walls” is a more mature song, with vocals by I think it’s Pim Koopman, because the voice sounds somewhat familiar to Kayak’s “Give It A Name”, but I’m not sure there. It starts off with a piano intro but quickly evolves into a cheery 60s song with some up-beat rhythms and a chorus with a bit of an epic feeling to it. The piano solos by Van Praag are quite enjoyable, yet we are glad Scherpenzeel takes control of the pianos in Kayak, for he sooths the ear just a bit more. Overall, it is a good, nice track.

In the end Fluffy is a nice single and a great piece of Kayak history, and it’s totally worth it to obtain this rarity, yet you must not expect an early See See the Sun, for it is nothing like Kayak. Still, this is a quite enjoyable single and highly recommended.

April 2010: Kayak and Queen month

Kayak and Queen Month

This month I will review all the albums of Kayak and Queen in chronological order. Let me explain my choices. For newer material from the bands, check this post.

Kayak


I chose Kayak because I am a fan of them ever since I first heard their 1981 album Merlin, when I was 13 years old. Since these Dutch prog-rockers are quite underrated and unknown, it encouraged me to get to know more music of them, which is pretty hard since almost all their albums are out of print. I managed to get legal copies of each album of theirs, but it was a tough journey. These are the albums that I will review:

1970 – High Tide Formation – Fluffy [Single]
1973 – See See the Sun
1974 – Kayak II
1975 – Royal Bed Bouncer
1976 – The Last Encore
1977 – Starlight Dancer
1977 – Starlight Dancer [US]
1978 – Phantom of the Night
1980 – Periscope Life
1981 – Merlin
1981 – Eyewitness

Queen


The British rock quartet was the first band that got me hooked, back in my really young days (primary school). Since I didn’t listen to them ever since I really started listening to music, my rediscovery of their music was rather interesting, since I really only truly hear the music now. This was a quite pleasant experience and of course I would like to write about those albums. These are the albums I’ll review:

1973 – Queen I
1974 – Queen II
1974 – Sheer Heart Attack
1975 – A Night at the Opera
1976 – A Day at the Races
1977 – News of the World
1978 – Jazz
1979 – Live Killers
1980 – The Game
1980 – Flash Gordon
1981 – Greatest Hits I
1982 – Hot Space
1984 – The Works
1986 – A Kind of Magic

Hopefully you’ll like the reviews, and if you have something to say about the reviewed albums than don’t hesitate and please do.

The_CrY

Coldplay - X&Y Bonus CD (2006)

Tracklist:
1. Things I Don't Understand
2. Proof
3. The World Turned Upside Down
4. Pour Me
5. Sleeping Sun
6. Gravity







This is a thing that I don’t understand – 8/10

This bonus CD that accompanied special editions of X&Y contains the b-sides from this period. I take it that b-sides are songs that didn’t make it to the album. Having this in mind, there’s a thing I don’t understand. Some of these songs are true b-sides, funny, goofy or only just not good enough, but others are easily better than some songs on the main album. Why turn those into b-sides?

We are dealing with six songs that didn’t make it to X&Y. Therefore, we have the same atmospheric space pop as on the main album, which is absent on a few songs. “Proof” for example, is a great piano ballad that sounds more like it could’ve been on A Rush of Blood rather than on X&Y. “Gravity” was said to be written in 2002, and I totally believe that, for it also sounds more like A Rush of Blood as well. These beautiful ballads are more relying on piano and vocals rather than on spacey synths and guitars, like X&Y. “Sleeping Sun” is an oddity. It shows the more experimental side of Coldplay and sounds pretty swinging with its percussion. The acoustic rhythm guitars are also pretty odd for Coldplay, yet it does sound like the band. “Pour Me” is recorded live and sounds like an obvious b-side, but it’s still good. With this song the spacey atmosphere has returned and it sounds like a slow rock song with Guy Berryman’s bass playing being pretty notable. In the end Martin really screams it out, which sounds pretty funny. “Things I Don’t Understand” and “The World Turned Upside Down” are two songs that should’ve been on the actual album, replacing “Speed of Sound” and “Low”. The spacey atmosphere has returned again and these songs sound really original, great and a lot better than the X&Y’s weakest. I think these would even be candidates for the best few songs of the entire X&Y sessions.

Having said that, I don’t understand why some of these songs are mere b-sides. The majority however is understandably not on the actual album, not because they’re bad songs, but because they wouldn’t fit on the album. In essence, this is a great bonus CD to have with your already great X&Y album and I highly recommend anyone who can get hold of this limited special edition to do so.

Strongest tracks: “Things I Don’t Understand” and “The World Turned Upside Down”.

Scorpions - Sting in the Tail (2010)

Tracklist:
1. Raised on Rock
2. Sting in the Tail
3. Slave Me
4. The Good Die Young
5. No Limit
6. Rock Zone
7. Lorelei
8. Turn You On
9. Let's Rock
10. SLY
11. Spirit of Rock
12. The Best is Yet to Come

I Fail to Get Stung – 6/10

The sooner the release date approached, the better the album was promised to be. First we are told this album is going to sound like the Scorpions did in the early 80s. Second we are told that this album is very good, on par with the classic albums Blackout and Love at First Sting, in the opinions of the band members. Last we are surprised with this being the final studio album the Scorpions will ever make together and they want to end their career on a high note, making this their swan song. If all these things were true, the Scorps would be making on hell of a farewell album. Unfortunately, the Scorpions seemed to have set the bar extremely low or they have just no more inspiration. I don’t mean to say the entire album is bad, but it sounds uninspired nonetheless.

Oh yes, this album sounds 80s alright, but it’s nowhere near Blackout. Actually, the sound reminds me more of Crazy World and Unbreakable, with a dash of new. This new element is the will to party, and party they did. Choruses like “Let’s Rock” and “Turn You On” are really happy and celebrating, unique to Sting in the Tail. The quality of the songs is however a bit less. I already said it was a little like Crazy World, and I think that one is a bit of a dull album. Well, this album is actually quite the same, but in a different way. Where Crazy World just didn’t have enough hooks and heartbreaking melodies, SitT does have hooks, but they don’t last for very long. They kept this album very simple, very happy and thus making it sound uninspired. The band’s performance is very tight, but the arrangements are dull. Best example of that is the title track with its one-chord verses and chorus. There’s just no challenge for the listeners on this album, although I have to admit the guitar solos are great again, after a short absence from previous albums.

This doesn’t mean the album doesn’t have its moments. “Raised on Rock” is a classic opener with very tight “Hurricane”-ish riffs and real good vocals. Vocalist Klaus Meine is really shining on the album, hitting high notes on his old day. “Lorelei” is a truly great ballad, slightly borrowing arrangements in the main theme from Crazy World’s “Send Me An Angel”. “Let’s Rock” is my favorite track with it’s relaxing heavy riff and very melodic partying chorus, but unfortunately not all CD releases feature this song. “The Best Is Yet to Come” is as a final ballad also worth a positive mention with its more modern sound and very catchy melodies. It’s obviously an upcoming live track with the stadium chants of ‘heyaheyo’. Having mentioned these four good songs, this is where the notable work stops.

The rest of the album is filled with okay but not great tracks. “Sting in the Tail” and “Rock Zone” for example are two very uninspired rock songs that don’t feature anything really stunning or notable. Same with rockers as “No Limit” or “Spirit of Rock”. These songs are not necessarily bad: they have considerably good riffs, great vocals and good choruses, but they are far from memorable. It’s okay, but not great. The ballad “SLY” on the other hand is quite a bad song. They not only copied the opening chords from “Send Me An Angel” again, but the rest of the track doesn’t go anywhere. That’s the whole problem with this album: most songs don’t go anywhere, they just go. That’s what makes this album pretty dull. European single “The Good Die Young” is in itself not a bad song, but doesn’t add anything to the album but an okay track without a solo. And then we have Tarja Turunen doing some backing vocals here, but it’s nothing that can’t be replaced by keyboards. It’s really a pity the Scorpions decide to end their career with this.

In short, Sting in the Tail is not the great farewell album they promised it to be. There are some fine songs on it, but the rest doesn’t matter. They’re not bad songs, but not at all great, and thus they make this a very dull album. I would recommend this only to collectors of the Scorpions’ music.

Strongest tracks: “Let’s Rock”, “Lorelei” and “Raised on Rock”.
Weakest tracks: “Sting in the Tail”, “Rock Zone” and “SLY”.

Coldplay - X&Y (2005)

Tracklist:
1. Square One
2. What If
3. White Shadows
4. Fix You
5. Talk
6. X&Y
7. Speed of Sound
8. A Message
9. Low
10. The Hardest Part
11. Swallowed in the Sea
12. Twisted Logic
13. Til Kingdom Come (hidden)

Atmospheric Space Pop – 7,5/10

Coldplay decided that their sound needed a change. And that’s basically the first thing you’ll notice about X&Y. The fun part of Coldplay is that they change their sound every album. Parachutes had this somewhat raw and unpolished sound, A Rush of Blood to the Head featured an overpolished and commercial pop sound, and X&Y again sounds entirely different and considerably catchier. This album also features a few great hits, making it another very successful album by the lords of pop. Before this album came out, Coldplay were teasing us with phrases like ‘we are trying to make the best thing that anyone has ever heard’*. I must say I was quite a bit surprised to hear this coming from a band I always regarded as cheap, commercial and plain back then. I have to say this album did kind of change that image.

The immediate discovery you’ll make is the strong and dominant presence of synthesizers and string ensembles. The synth sound used is mostly an atmospheric spacey sound and makes you feel you’re in space, especially when it’s only Chris Martin and the synths you hear. There’s a slight reverb effect added to the guitars to add even more to the space theme. Apart from the mysterious space feel in the music, there’s also some great mysterious nature in the lyrics. They seem to deal moments of things that are uncertain and unreal. Some of these lyrics are quite high quality, such as “Talk” or “White Shadows”, but there’s also some quite cheesy and downright stupid tripe in “What If”. Overall, the lyrics fit the music. Also a more relative change is the increased amount of guitar melodies and guitar themes in the songs. Though they are more backed up by synths or string ensembles on the background, the foreground relies more on guitar than piano now.

Let me take you on a journey through the highlights and abominations of this album. The first track you’ll come across is “Square One”. An atmospheric synthesizer intro and some vocal lines later we have Will Champion giving one of his greatest drum rhythms ever. It doesn’t take that long for the full band to join in and the guitar is the main accompanying instrument. There’s an echo attached to Martin’s voice as well. The song is further carried on by the backing synths and the accompanying guitars. Overall this is a great opener. “What If” tries to build on to this atmosphere that is created, but just fails at the beginning. They not only began with pianos, the first lyrical phrase is ‘What if there was no life?’. Can you come up with anything cheesier? The song evolves in a gentle pop song with a nice guitar melody towering high above the other instruments and soon enough we’ll be back into the great synth-guitar accompaniment duo. Absolute highlight is found in “White Shadows”. The great accompaniment remains here and the verses feature solid drums by Champion and then it goes back to the main theme with its great towering guitar melody by Jonny Buckland. The second verse features at least three guitar tracks, which adds a lot to the song. As the beautiful chorus finally arrives we have Martin giving a great falsetto voice with an epic synth-guitar duo. The great line continues with the two big hits “Fix You” and “Talk”, which are both very catchy and are respectively a ballad and a rocker. I would never have thought Coldplay would make a rock song, but with “Talk” they made a good rock song, albeit they bought the main guitar melody from Kraftwerk.

This is where the album weakens a little. With the title track “X&Y” we have a clear case of string ensemble overload. While the song itself is not that bad, it is slightly spoiled by the very dominant string ensemble. “Speed of Sound” is very similar to big hit “Clocks”, which just sounds lame and uninspired. Although it is a different song and, surprise surprise, another hit single, we have a similar theme and similar melodies. “A Message” begins with the classic Coldplay guitar intro we often hear on the first two albums, but later somewhat explodes into a bombastic synth part that is supposed to be the chorus, yet lacks one thing: aren’t choruses supposed to be catchy? Though I must admit I like the verses of this song, I really despise the choruses. “Low” has to be the lowest quality on this album. The verses really sound like a cheap copy of “White Shadows” and the chorus is just an enormous letdown and actually doesn’t do anything. It leads nowhere and the enormously dominant synthesizers are not funny at all here, combined with Buckland merely slamming the appropriate chord as many times as he can in the chorus.

After this dive we come back to the surface and meet more quality songs. “The Hardest Part” and “Swallowed by the Sea” both have a very catchy and a somewhat sing-along theme, and it really surprised me that the latter was not released as a single and “What If” was. In contrast to the previous few songs, the good synth-guitar accompaniment balance has been restored here and makes these songs memorable. “Twisted Logic” somewhat takes this new Coldplay sound we’ve been surprised with and adds it to a classic Coldplay song. In other words, it is your favorite epic closing song you find on earlier albums, but now converted for X&Y sound. The track is great and at the chorus all the good things of this album return: the high falsetto voice of Chris Martin, the great synthesizer-guitar accompaniment, the epic feeling and the powerful drumming of Will Champion. The hidden track “Til Kingdom Come” is a nice acoustic song that sounds like it was recorded by Chris Martin in his bedroom.

In short, X&Y is a very different Coldplay sound, mostly due to the powerful new sound of the synthesizers and the more present guitars. Although the album weakens a little in the middle the good songs are great and hint subtly at the following studio release Viva la Vida or Death and All his Friends. This album I recommend to every pop fan alive, since modern pop music rarely sounds like this. X&Y is a one-of-a-kind experience.

Strongest tracks: “White Shadows”, “Swallowed by the Sea” and “Twisted Logic”.
Weakest tracks: “Low”, “A Message” and “Speed of Sound”.

* = Source