Author Topic: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #1 "Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?"  (Read 47916 times)

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Offline sneakyblueberry

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Another fantastic album.  Not in my top 10, but definitely one of my favourites. 

Offline Scorpion

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Your review has inspired me to check out On An Island. Dunno why I never did, I love most of Gilmour's work in Pink Floyd.

Also much love for Beyond the Bridge. Stunning album. Seeing it live in its quasi-entirety (The Primal Demand and All a Man Can Do were sadly skipped) was one of the best experiences in my life. And I agree, the solo on Where the Earth and Sky Meet is stunning. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the guitarist is one of the coolest people to talk to that I've ever met.
scorpion is my favorite deathcore lobster
Hey, the length is fine :azn: Thanks!

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #6 "The conductor understood the music"
« Reply #317 on: January 28, 2015, 09:54:52 AM »
Your review has inspired me to check out On An Island. Dunno why I never did, I love most of Gilmour's work in Pink Floyd.

What do you mean, someone is actually reading these?  :lol

Also much love for Beyond the Bridge. Stunning album. Seeing it live in its quasi-entirety (The Primal Demand and All a Man Can Do were sadly skipped) was one of the best experiences in my life. And I agree, the solo on Where the Earth and Sky Meet is stunning. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the guitarist is one of the coolest people to talk to that I've ever met.

Of all the songs they've skipped this one? I would've been pissed off a bit.

Just finished listening The Old Man And The Spirit.

 :omg:  :hefdaddy

It needs a couple more spins, but I already can tell that I'll become a fan. Doorway To Salvation  :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy and all the other tracks  :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy

Guess that's another album I can forget about sending in your roulette.

Digesting this album slowly, its starting to reveal itself to me. I love the closer - thanks for recommending it to me. I also love whatever Gilmour does. The man's a god.

Yeah, hoping his next studio album will be as awesome as this one, or maybe even better. Curiously, I used the next album in the list in your roulette too.

Alright, so this is the odd album I was talking about. It's probably not as well known as the others in the list, and it may even not be that exciting, but it earned this spot for personal reasons, and for being just simply mindblowing to watch it being performed live. Here comes...

#6
Sarabande
Jon Lord
Genre: classical music / fusion rock
1976


That’s right, an instrumental album.

After my raving about Jon Lord in the write-up for Deep Purple the appearance of this masterpiece of his in my list shouldn’t be surprising. I admire the man’s talents for writing both rock masterpieces and classical pieces for orchestra. Well, Sarabande isn’t classical music in the usual sense, I think, because of course it’s not like what Bach (though with this one it’s kind of close) or Mozart or Tchaikovsky were writing and composing, but it’s as close as it gets to classical of all the albums I heard and own. There are those pompous orchestral parts, performed by The Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra, directed by Eberhard Schoener, and then there are bass (done by Paul Karass. Hell, what a rhyme! Bass – Paul Karass. Moving on.), drums (Pete York) and percussion (Mark Nauseef), guitars (Andy Summers), and keyboards and piano and Hammond organ, just like in your usual rock band. There are plenty of your usual grandiloquent moments like in classical music, and also plenty of groovy moments, driven by bass or slick keyboard sounds, so this record is quite unique, just like the man himself.

Sarabande clocks at around fifty minutes and consists of eight tracks, two of them are more like prologue and epilogue. Lord named each track after the name of the dance, and tried to come up with the same rhythms and tempos as in the original dances. Describing this kind of music in details is a bit pointless and difficult, so let’s just do a quick overview just that before moving on. Fantasia, the record’s opener, has what is needed to open such a suite like that, feeling a complete track itself and like an appetizer for the things to come at the same time. It starts in a bombastic, incredibly epic way with orchestra firing at all cylinders, then after a minute it breaks down to the peaceful, tranquil section going on for another minute; after that, it regains its former loftiness. The title track, Sarabande, follows next, featuring the moving bassline and smooth synth sounds driving the song forward. This one has Jon Lord’s name written all over it, it’s instantly recognizable with the very first synthesizer’s passage. The group and orchestra are intertwined tightly in patterns here, while the synths are leading the song with bass and drums underneath it, orchestra bursts in every now and then, repeating what Lord is playing. The decent pace, variety and sort-of-predictability in the melodies all make this tune incredibly climactic, and that break with change of rhythm near the track’s end works flawlessly; the piece then returns to its original flow for a bit before the conclusion, and this makes me appreciate it even more.

A small number called Aria enters next. Aria is a piano piece with the nice and subtle atmospheric synth arrangements behind it, staying true to the original tune. When Lord started playing the album live, he rewrote this track to include orchestrations. It’s good to have that sort of breather after the action-packed Sarabande and before the gigantic Gigue, which is the next tune coming in the playlist. This eleven minutes long track is more orchestra-oriented, offering the most classical approach on the record in the beginning. The musical team performs this playful, lively main melody of Gigue, while bass and drums are happily playing along in the background, until the guitar gladly chimes in with Andy Summers extracting a solo from it. Then  Lord contributes his famous Hammond organ playing and, uhm, classical approach? What classical approach? Oh, here it comes. Got to give props for the man for combining those two elements so seamlessly. And there is a drum solo on top of that, which makes it great for showcasing drummer’s abilities. Well, anyway, this track feels alive, jumpy and playful, and I obviously love it, but not more than the next one, Bourée, which is another eleven minutes long piece. It has almost nothing to do with Jethro Tull’s song of the same name, by the way. Bourée reminds me of a title track, Sarabande, only more huge and pompous, and driven by drums and percussion instead. And if Sarabande was more smooth and relaxed, this one is intense and more powerful, a real tour de force. The main melody is so catchy it hurts, and the piece has the prominent western vibe to it, featuring a noticeable amount of groove and being more on the rockish edge, especially with another fine guitar solo. This track is a beast in a live setting, extremely awesome.

Pavane is definitely more on a melancholic side, again, staying true to the natural tempo of this dance. This is achieved by quiet and restrained acoustic guitar playing with subtle keyboard addition from the maestro. Overall, it’s a wonderful calm piece, and the second part speeds up the flow for a while, though you can’t compare it to the frantic, cheerful attitude of Caprice, which is easily the fastest track on the suite. Lord provides another Hammond solo which is reminiscent of his Deep Purple usual contributions, and the whole tune has a lot of stuff happening during its three minutes; and its length saddens me a bit, I could’ve used a few more minutes of this melody going on. This song was played without an orchestra on the record, but like Aria, Jon added some parts for the live performance. Finally, Finale finishes (this was awful, I know) the record with quick summary of it, revisiting every song and playing the essential parts from them, which is done in a clunky yet passable way. I think the studio version could’ve used a bit extended final section too, because it just seems to be over in a few seconds; there is no such issue in a 2010 version, where the orchestra has another minute of finesse to conclude the suite in an epic way.

I mentioned the live performance of this album for a couple of times now, and trust me, it’s for a good reason. I always enjoyed The Sarabande Suite, but I felt it was missing something to make it really shine. This thought vanished, just disappeared completely when I saw Jon Lord with the band and the orchestra playing it live in Moscow at April, 2011. The way this whole suite works in a live setting is exceptional and much more graceful and impressive than the studio version. It just seems to bewitch you, making it impossible to turn your eyes away from the scene. The venue was outstanding; they’ve offered only a small hall for just a couple of hundred seats instead of a big one, and even then it was half-filled with people who really appreciated this music and were passionate about it, so there were no unnecessary whistling or shouting or murmuring among the public (which can ruin the experience of such a night for me). Jon Lord enhanced the performance with his undeniable charisma, professionalism, composure and passion; and both the band and the orchestra sounded amazing. It was a surprise to hear Sarabande that night, because Lord released his studio album dedicated to John Mortimer called To Notice Such Things in 2010, and it was written on the advertisements that this will be the played (I think it was “To Notice Such Things + greatest hits of Jon Lord career”; those folks clearly haven’t had any idea about the setlist), and then Jon appeared on scene and announced they’re playing The Sarabande Suite. This turned out to be even more mindblowing than I expected, and this concert remains the best I’ve ever seen.

Jon Lord passed away at 16th of July, 2012. I couldn’t believe it. He looked so fine and healthy just a year ago, full of life and energy on scene. This news seriously took me aback; I was astounded to say the least. I loved his music and was sure he will write many more musical masterpieces. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. I’m so glad that I was able to witness his insane musical talent, that I was able to see him performing live before this horrible turn of events. And this music, those masterpieces he had already wrote, they can’t be erased and I’m sure they won’t be forgotten by his loyal fans all over the world. The man won’t be forgotten, and his music will live on.

(That was a bit on a dramatic side.)

Disclaimer: for the most satisfying experience you should listen to the whole album

Favourite tracks: Sarabande, Bourée, Pavane, Caprice

Note: I couldn’t find studio version of Caprice on Youtube, so I included the live one in favourite tracks. It’s reworked for orchestra, but it might be even better this way. And you can see the 69 years old Jon rocking out during this Hammond solo, so it's a win-win situation.

And on this positive note we are almost done with this list! Only the top five is left to post, and we’ll get to the next two tomorrow.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2015, 10:31:23 AM by Evermind »
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Sacul

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Just finished listening The Old Man And The Spirit.


 :omg:  :hefdaddy

Kind of knew you'd like it :P.

Yeah, I liked the song you sent me of him, so I'll surely check this out.

Offline Tom Bombadil

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #6 "The conductor understood the music"
« Reply #319 on: January 28, 2015, 11:00:14 AM »
Definitely going to check out the Gilmour album. For some reason I've never bothered exploring his solo work. That needs to change.

Online wolfking

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #6 "The conductor understood the music"
« Reply #320 on: January 28, 2015, 09:12:09 PM »
I'm getting a bit lost with this list now.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #6 "The conductor understood the music"
« Reply #321 on: January 28, 2015, 09:26:01 PM »
I'm getting a bit lost with this list now.

This part may be a little bit unexciting, but up ahead there's still stuff you would like. At least I think so.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Online wolfking

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #6 "The conductor understood the music"
« Reply #322 on: January 28, 2015, 09:31:39 PM »
I've just only ever been a casual Deep Purple fan, and an even more casual Floyd fan.  Looking forward to the top 5.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

Online TAC

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #6 "The conductor understood the music"
« Reply #323 on: January 29, 2015, 07:17:56 AM »
 :corn
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #324 on: January 29, 2015, 08:15:29 AM »
Have I mentioned I love Ayreon? No? Well, there you have it, the double update before the Top 3.

#5
The Theory Of Everything
Ayreon
Genre: progressive rock / progressive metal
2013


Top five opens up with an album released quite recently, in 2013. It surpassed everything released in the last ten years and became one of my most beloved albums ever in such a short time. This record significantly affected my attention to the music scene in general, reigniting my interest after a several months of indifference on my part. I was starting to feel burned out and stopped buying and listening to most of new music; I think it happened in summer after Avantasia and Helloween / Gamma Ray gigs in Moscow. So as of autumn 2013, I was following only a couple of bands with passion, namely enjoying new Avantasia, Steven Wilson’s Raven and trying (rather unsuccessfully) to get into self-titled DT album.

That’s when the new Ayreon album saw the light of day. I was positively sure I have to check it out, but initially I wasn’t going to bother purchasing it (shame on me). But then I thought about how great Ayreon releases usually are, how I wanted to experience to the brand new album of this supergroup with a booklet in my hands (I became a fan in 2010, so I missed 01011001’s release), then I wandered to the preorders page, saw those glorious bundles and, duh, of course I’ve bought it. After a long, dull month of waiting due to exceptional shipping skills of Russian Post Service it arrived; the first listening experience left me in awe, it was beyond my highest expectations. It was something magical. The fact The Theory Of Everything was a completely new story made this experience even better, and as it’s quite a tragic one, it even made me shed a tear or two when that main melody came back in the end.

The Theory Of Everything was so utterly magnificent that my burnout disappeared as if it never existed in the first place, so there’s a bit of personal bias in putting it at #5, yet the brilliant, sky-high quality of the work itself should’ve been enough to warrant it a decent spot somewhere around the 15th place. The music has standard Ayreon’s fare, or maybe even fresher and more enthralling; the story is compelling and captivating, yet quite easy to grasp; the cast of singers and instrumentalists is top notch. Arjen invited a bunch of big names for this one, as always, and at certain moments you can hear Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Jordan Rudess, Steven Hackett and Troy Donockley contributing to this masterpiece. Arjen invited seven singers to represent the seven characters in the story, which is a major change from his previous album; all of them are recognizable enough, yet if you aren’t familiar with their bands and don’t have a booklet around, you might be confused in some passages telling which male voice is which. The album consists of four grand tracks, each is considerably over twenty minutes; those tracks are divided into nine or eleven lesser tracks, making it 42 tracks overall (nugget!). This is alright if your media player is good enough so you won’t notice the breaks between these little pieces, but the default player on my phone sucks, so it’s not exactly a good idea in my book. The music is mostly keyboards-and-synths driven, though obviously there are electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass, and other semi-standard Ayreon instruments like violin, cello and flute. There are a lot of musical and lyrical reprises throughout the album, as you can expect from deliberate concept work, all nicely tied into a story being told.

Arjen does a clever thing to end the album where it began; he sets the first scene in a present day, showing us the picture of what’s going on at a certain lighthouse, and then we’re going back in time for eleven years to see how happened what has happened. The story revolves around The Prodigy (Tommy Karevik), a main protagonist, who is an exceptional savant (one in a million!) and has a brilliant mind (which is ablaze with distraction! Fine, I’ll stop.), so he suffers from some sort of syndrome I don’t know the exact name of; he isn’t communicating with others and, well, stuff.

I’m awful at recapping stories, am I not? :lol

Prodigy’s Father (Michael Mills) is a mathematician, obsessed with solving The Theory of Everything, spending all of his time on it and neglecting his disabled son, while Prodigy’s Mother (Cristina Scabbia) is disapproving of Father’s actions, loving her son, being very protective of him, yet unable to get any response while trying to reach him. The Prodigy is able to visit school, where he meets The Teacher (JB), who is astounded to see the boy solving the problem he himself was working for years without progress, his classmate The Rival (Marco Hietala), who is a considerable dick (The Rival, not Marco), and The Girl (Sara Squadrani), who grows fond of him over time. After an intimidating Teacher’s visit to the boy’s Father, because, well, JB’s voice is quite intimidating, if you ask me, Father agrees to take the boy to The Psychiatrist (John Wetton). He’s apparently doing it only because Prodigy can help him solve the theory, so, well, I don’t even know who’s more a dick in this story, honestly.

The doctor offers the parents to use the drug he’s currently testing or clearing Prodigy’s mind. Mother vehemently protests against it, and Father defiantly acquiesces before sneaking away from home and visiting Psychiatrist alone to start drugging his son, adding the medicine in his food (what a dick). In the meantime, Teacher and Girl decide they can help the protagonist, both in their own ways, while Rival is sitting here doing nothing, promising to show everyone what a genius he is. The progress Prodigy makes with a drug is instant; Mother is over the moon, while Teacher is torn between being triumphant, inspired and rightly suspicious. After a few more years, the side effects of the drug are confirmed, and Father has to confess to his son about it, which mildly enrages (what?) him, he leaves home and goes to find Teacher, bumping into Girl and Rival instead. Now, instead of waving them goodbye and continue searching, he tells his whole story to both (can’t you see the dude despises you? Just wait for Girl to be alone, goddammit!). She invites him to live in her home, while Rival is beside himself and begins plotting plots. Which is actually something he apparently exceeds at, because the idea to ask the Prodigy to rob the bank in exchange for the drug he so desperately needs is nothing short of brilliant (and, of course, serves his own purpose in the rivalry with the protagonist). Prodigy can’t overwhelm his dependence on the drug and agrees; Girl is devastated he preferred that way over her care and protection, and goes all take-the-road-Jack-and-don’t-you-come-back-no-more on him. The robbery succeeds and Rival is fading into the sunset with his pockets full of money, officially being The Most Successful Character in this particular story.

The female characters are worrying about how Prodigy fares, not knowing where he is; meanwhile, he bought an abandoned lighthouse and works on the Theory there with frequent visits of Teacher. Father tries to talk Mother into allowing him to see Prodigy again (which is a futile effort, seeing how no one except Teacher knows where he is) because he needs another chance to work the Theory out. I actually was so immersed in the story at this moment I’ve become quite pissed off, and Mother apparently too, because at first she is furious, then calls it goodbye and leaves. Father is in grief over that (kinda too late, man, maybe you should’ve used your brains not only to work at the Theory, eh?), and decides to end his life; then Prodigy sees Father in a lighthouse doorstep. Together, they work all night and solve the theory; the protagonist takes a huge dose of the drug and goes catatonic after their success, leaving a note for Teacher to find. In the morning he indeed finds it and calls Girl, who comes there instantly, informing him about Father’s suicide previous evening. (After this, the first scene takes place.) Then Mother bursts into the room, sees her son slumped on the floor and breaks into tears along with Girl. The simple, yet so powerful ”My husband / my love / my son / all lost” exchange gets me every single time. Mother and Girl both take their leave, Teacher lingers in a room a bit, and notices the equations were written in two different styles of handwriting.

What I really love in this story (besides recapping it), the characters’ actions and motivations here are clear and believable. No weird aliens, Forever or other stuff; Mother comes across as a very realistic, and her portrayal by Cristina is awesome, Father is a selfish dick (damn, but he did piss me off in The Argument 2, no kidding) but Mike Mills is such a great singer I’ll give him a pass; Teacher’s reasons to befriend Prodigy is also incredibly natural, and so on. The ambiguity in the end is also a nice touch, and while it doesn’t make much sense, I believe Arjen himself said the magic will be present in the story, so there’s my explanation.

Some random notes before we move on:
-   I found the Prodigy’s comeback in confrontation with Rival, namely ”There can only be one! — I’m pretty sure that it’s not you-ouououou!” overly hilarious. I think I’ve even paused the record on the first listen to laugh. I don’t even know what’s so funny in this line;
-   While Arjen managed to make guitar solos by Emerson, Wakeman and JR sound fitting, Steve Hackett’s guitar solo feels out of place for me. I even tend to forget it actually exists on the album.

Disclaimer: for the most satisfying experience you should listen to the whole album

Favourite track: Phase I: Singularity
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #325 on: January 29, 2015, 08:15:41 AM »
#4
The Human Equation
Ayreon
Genre: progressive rock / progressive metal
2004


And here comes the reason I omitted all the references and comparisons to The Human Equation in the last write-up. Well, this is hardly a shock or surprise for anyone following; I’ve made it quite clear in a lot of different lists and other threads that I adore this album. That said, both The Theory Of Everything and The Human Equation are very much alike. The music in both is on a mellow side with similar and frequent usage of violins and flute and cello, while some guitar and keyboard solos come dangerously close to being too exact in notes and feeling. Another similarity would be the way the story is executed. Both albums have a standalone concept (except for that plot twist in The Human Equation I tend to disregard) and a considerably small cast of singers, each of them playing their respective roles, representing them with their unique voices. I suspect that after a relatively lukewarm reception to 01011001 (which I still remember how to pronounce, yay), Arjen decided to return to the tried and true recipe of overwhelming success he designed with The Human Equation. Well, of course, that’s not exactly what he has done, for while having a lot in common, these two albums are different after all. The Human Equation features the full-fleshed and rather short songs with pronounced verses and choruses, the tale itself is even more realistic, despite those emotions talking and arguing in the protagonist’s head, and literally every voice is a perfect fit for the role, even Arjen’s. He can continue making those snarky remarks about his total inability to sing for all I care; well, the man ain’t Jorn Lande after all, but since he wrote the material, he of all people should know and realize how to sing it; and he does, putting just the right amount of emotions in his voice, coming off very convincing in album’s context.

The story of The Human Equation is about a man lying in a comatose state in a hospital as a result of a car accident. He is named Me in the booklet and is portrayed by James LaBrie. In the real life, there are his Wife and his Best Friend sitting near his bed for days, voiced by Arjen Lucassen and Marcela Bovio respectively. In his head, there are various emotions trying to either support him or bring him down. The full list features seven of them: Fear (Mikael Akerfeldt), Agony (Devon Graves), Love (Heather Findlay), Passion (Irene Jansen), Pride (Magnus Ekwall), Reason (Eric Clayton) and Rage (Devin Townsend). Also, in one and only instance of the story a wild Father appears, hilariously portrayed by Mike Baker. The artists are picked very thoroughly, their voices correspond to the emotions they are posing as; deep, thoughtful Eric’s voice is perfect for the role of Reason; reckless Magnus’ screams are a good representation of Pride; touching, yet at the same time playful appearance of Heather Findlay fits the part of Love like a glove; while deceptively warm and calm Mikael’s delivery explodes into the growling madness when the protagonist looks into the deepest pits of his heart.

The Human Equation consists of twenty songs, each one equals one day Me spending in coma. He recites the story of his life in order to find out how he ended up in such a miserable state, as he doesn’t remember anything post-accident. He can’t get back to life alone, and both his Wife and Best Friend are trying to reach out to him, but mostly to no avail as both Me and his companions had severely wronged each other in the past; in order to come back Me needs some kind of push, a strong incentive to do it. The story unfolds in a satisfying way, and as I don’t feel like recapping it now, you’ll have to listen and find out what happens if you’re unfamiliar with the plot yet. While the album is lengthy (around 100 minutes), it’s totally worth it.

What exactly strikes me in this album is that its story and events hit me on a personal level. While I’ve never suffered a car accident, haven’t been in coma and haven’t heard the literal emotions in my head, I have a best friend whom I know for more than fifteen years already. Obviously I haven’t cheated him on his wife (and he has no chance of doing it as I don’t have a wife! Suck it, friend. Loser! Oh, wait.), and we didn’t ruin each other careers, but I dread to imagine what mess, what wreckage I would’ve become if I would ever find him in the protagonist position; and I bet this would be the same if you switch the places. This is why this album hits me so hard, especially the tracks where Marcela and Arjen interact with unconscious James, because what Arjen depicts in the story seems awfully realistic to me. Best Friend trying to wake Me with describing all their previous adventures together and prompting him to see there is so much to live for, so many yet undiscovered things and other breathtaking stuff in the world they’ve yet to experience, reciting the hilarious and awkward moments they’ve had together with either him or his Wife (now that came out awkward, knowing where the story brings us), desperately asking him to come back alive and willing to admit and apologize for any situation he wronged the protagonist; and Me has his own sins to repent and confess, and when after a long journey it all comes to light in the last two songs, the payoff is delightful. Best Friend must feel guilty as hell at that moment, because he thinks he was an indirect cause of the accident, and of course when Me half-awakes and the first thing he does is making a confession about how he destroyed Best Friend’s career, of course the latter is willing to forgive. Hell, I would’ve burst into tears if I was in his place. This moment is very touching. However, the whole thing happened with Me is more like a karma biting him in the ass, though you can’t blame the man; well, you can, but not entirely. First, growing up with an asshole instead of a father isn’t the easiest and healthiest thing in the world (why are fathers always such dicks in stories Arjen pens?); then obviously he would be an outcast in school; then his parents go through an apparently unofficial divorce, when the father just leaves the home for bad, and his mother dies the very same day; well, that would be enough to wreck an ordinary person’s life. He has his blessing in having such a great friend, he has his blessing finding a soul loving him, and while he probably was returning the feelings back at first, after a while he just subsided to the darkest corners of his soul, and then rapidly spiraled towards disaster. He undermined his friend’s place at work resulting in friend being fired and him getting the director’s position finally, then because of work (and probably his conscience torturing him somewhere in the back of this mind) he begins ignoring his Wife and this doesn’t help.

I mean, seriously, let’s go through this again: the man had no friends at school, his father hated him and the only person who loved him was his mother. After his mother dies he has exactly two persons who care of him and love him, namely his Best Friend and Wife. What does Me do? He ruins his friend’s career, using the information his friend shared because he had trust and confidence in him (and Best Friend strongly suspects him); then he alienates his Wife just being stuck at work for days and nights, and ignoring her presence at home when he’s there. I realize that how Father treated Me, that probably left some sort of awful print on his perception of the world, but really, man, antagonizing those two and the only people who appreciate and love you in this world is a no go, at all. And it comes as no surprise when those two abandoned people, Wife and Best Friend, start meeting behind Me’s back, because they have the same problem on their shoulders, which adds the last brick to the enormous weight of awful things Me had on him at the moment and results in the accident. Seriously, there are no one to blame but Father and the protagonist, and I love this story so much because in the end Me realizes it, admits his blindness and vanity, and doesn’t even ask about all this Friend – Wife affair; so in the end, the trinity is happily reunited. This means a lot for me, as the people who I’m always hanging with are my best friend and his wife, so I was incredibly joyous when it all ended in a satisfying, happy way. Anything concerning Dream Sequencer and stuff beyond this point just doesn’t exist for me in the album’s context.

Well, alright, since it’s actually there, I’ll just make a short note before we move on to the top three. The phrase “I remember” strikes me as this particular Forever doesn’t remember anything, because it just sounds so dull and emotionless. :lol And there better be an extended James’ scream in The Theater Equation performance. If they cut it again somehow, it’ll be outrageous.

Oh, and another random note, Father’s speech is so ironic and hilarious. ”My ex-wifes all sue me! And with half my kids in jail I still come out laughing, coz me, I never fail!”. Right you are, man, right you are.

Disclaimer: for the most satisfying experience you should listen to the whole album

Favourite tracks: Day Two: Isolation, Day Seven: Hope, Day Eleven: Love, Day Twelve: Trauma, Day Thirteen: Sign, Day Nineteen: Disclosure, Day Twenty: Confrontation

And, well, any guesses for top three?
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #326 on: January 29, 2015, 08:22:54 AM »
Both albums are great, though Into The Electric Castle is my favorite Ayreon album.

And I have to admit I've only payed passing attention the story in either one. :lol  I love Ayreon for the music, lyrics not so much.

Offline Sacul

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #327 on: January 29, 2015, 11:05:28 AM »
Still can't get into TToE, but you know how much I love THE :heart .


My guesses are PF's Meddle, and Dire Straits' Love Over Gold :hat . I don't know about the other though :lol .

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #328 on: January 29, 2015, 11:09:09 AM »
My guesses are PF's Meddle, and Dire Straits' Love Over Gold :hat . I don't know about the other though :lol .

Based on two of my favourite songs of all time, eh? I guess that's a way to go too. :D
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Online lonestar

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #329 on: January 29, 2015, 11:23:12 AM »
Hmm, I fall into the camp of people who doesn't get the screaming thigh sweats over Aryeon. It's good stuff and all, but just good.





Don't kill me.

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #330 on: January 29, 2015, 11:30:11 AM »
Hmm, I fall into the camp of people who doesn't get the screaming thigh sweats over Aryeon. It's good stuff and all, but just good.

Don't kill me.

Have you tried telling Nem about it? :lol
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline mikemangioy

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #331 on: January 29, 2015, 01:21:21 PM »
Fuck yeah Ayreon galore  :metal
While THE was in my top three, and it's pretty close to your position, TTOE never struck me that much because of its format. I'm too lazy to listen to an album structured like that, sorry  :-\ although I'll admit that what I heard was top notch.

I won't take guesses because I would fail so much in this particular list  :biggrin:
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Offline Crow

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #332 on: January 29, 2015, 01:46:57 PM »
man I super wish I could really get into The Theory of Everything at all
but it's more a movie than an album, the music serves the story inside of vice-versa so once you're sick of the story there's no reason to return to it

The Human Equation is fantastic though.

Online lonestar

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #333 on: January 29, 2015, 02:37:32 PM »
Hmm, I fall into the camp of people who doesn't get the screaming thigh sweats over Aryeon. It's good stuff and all, but just good.

Don't kill me.

Have you tried telling Nem about it? :lol

Oh hell no. I like my job tyvm....

Online bl5150

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #334 on: January 29, 2015, 04:08:47 PM »
Hmm, I fall into the camp of people who doesn't get the screaming thigh sweats over Aryeon. It's good stuff and all, but just good.





Don't kill me.

I agree - never heard an Ayreon song that I couldn't wait to hear again. if I feel like some of his stuff it'd be Star One.
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Offline ThatOneGuy2112

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #335 on: January 29, 2015, 07:56:41 PM »
The Human Equation made my own top 50. Excellent album. :tup

The Theory of Everything might be my favorite he's done aside from THE, and possibly Into the Electric Castle. Definitely in the top 3 regardless. While the story behind the Ayreon albums is usually intriguing, what makes me stay is the music itself. Arjen is a genius in that department.

Offline Bolsters

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #336 on: January 29, 2015, 09:53:09 PM »
Still can't get into TToE
Yeah same here. For me it was a big disappointment.

Can't complain about THE though. :tup

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #5 / #4 "Follow your heart, you can't go wrong"
« Reply #337 on: January 30, 2015, 04:08:10 AM »
I couldn't really get into TTOE, but THE is absolutely amazing.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

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Alright, I somewhat expected this reaction, though I'm a bit surprised by a lack of positive response to TTOE. I just love it so much.

So it's the weekend, I've got three more days to wrap this up, and I've got precisely three updates left to post, so I guess the schedule is clear enough! When I was contemplating making this list, I was uncertain about almost every position, but the Top 3, I knew what it would be right from the start. It's probably the only portion of this list that stayed unchanged through all the months I was writing the writeups.

So, let's get down to business, shall we?

#3
Rising
Rainbow
Genre: hard rock
1976


Before I start describing this album, let’s just take a few moments to appreciate the thought-provoking, poignant themes illuminated in the lyrics penned by Ronnie James Dio, a wonderful example of which I’ve put in the thread’s title.

After all the records I had in the list, Rising’s appearance was a given. I mean, in this list I had two albums featuring Ritchie Blackmore on them, one of them almost in top ten, and then I had two Dio-fronted records, one of them in top ten. I was properly complimenting both musicians for their spectacular musicianship and unrivaled talent. So, in hindsight it wasn’t really difficult to figure this album would show up, because what happens when those two geniuses with their unique and awesome musical ideas unite in a band? They get into a conflict after a few years and one of them leaves, and as it’s Blackmore’s band, you guessed it, it’s not Ritchie (well, to be honest, this guy fired a lot of people during Rainbow existence, so there’s that); but not before they record some amazing glorious masterpiece, Rising.

While Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (band’s debut record) has a few marvelous songs, it also features a good load of filler, which absolutely isn’t the case for Rising. This is Blackmore and Dio on their creative peak. While Ritchie and Ronnie are obviously the driving force here with their signature guitar sounds and vocal melodies, let’s not overlook the other members, especially the drummer Cozy Powell (who, sadly, died in a car accident in 1998) and keyboardist Tony Carey, who was fired from Rainbow in 1977 as their relations with Blackmore grew worse and worse, and (I’ve read this story somewhere and I’m inclined to believe it’s true, but if it’s not, I guess the Rainbow geeks will correct me in no time, we’re at DTF after all) one day he entered the studio carrying a glass of whiskey and a synth under his arm, slipped on the floor and spilled the whiskey on the equipment, which have seriously pissed off Ritchie, and Carey was kicked out of the band. I actually think a lot of that stuff happening in Rainbow was fit for a good laugh, or sometimes not exactly, for example when Blackmore broke the jaw of some security guy on the gig in Vienna, and was arrested (not before trying to leave the venue in a large trunk, which unfortunately didn’t work). Or when they were kicked out from the hotel because Cozy emptied the whole fire extinguisher into the room of some German guest of theirs while climbing the hotel’s outside wall, apparently because he had mistaken the floor he was, ehm, on. At least that’s what Jimmy Bain, who played bass on Rising, claims in his interview. By the way, he was later fired in the very beginning of 1977 for appearing on scene being under the drugs several times. Rainbow was a great fun, it seems.

So yeah, I haven’t checked but I’m fairly sure it’s the shortest album on this list. It features only six songs and lasts only 33 minutes, but it’s all golden from start to finish, and that’s why it’s here in top three. Rising opens with a lengthy synthesizer solo on Tarot Woman, which is actually a mellow, leveled, atmospheric start of something beautiful. The electric guitars and bass start building tension then, with synths helping, and when the drums come in, Rainbow is at full force. Dio doesn’t make you wait much longer, entering the song up with his fabulous vocal abilities, and the melodies here are among the strongest on the record. The same can’t be said about lyrics, for the very first line goes like “I don’t wanna go, something tells me no, no, no, no”. Really. Whatever. The melodies do shine though, especially on “A smile on a bright shining face” part, and Blackmore provides a compelling guitar solo right on the first track. Tarot Woman clocks at six minutes, which allows the instrumentalists to shine: both elaborate guitar solo and keyboard solo is what ups this song from good to perfect. Run With the Wolf is a worthy successor, slowing the pace for a bit but still rocking hard. Once again, this song is enhanced greatly by the vocal melodies, the most climactic part being “What’s to come — when the siren calls, you go” in the chorus, and of course the final ad libs part is impressive too. And of course both those songs are ending with the fadeout. I realize it was the usual thing to do, and it works alright and well, but not as well as in the track that I’ll be writing about a bit lower in this post. Suspense! (Seeing as there’s only one song with a fadeout left on Rising, eh, calling it suspense is pushing it quite far.)

The next song, Starstruck, is a faster number, and I’m again struggling to describe it justice. It just has that Rainbow spirit and sounding, which makes it a splendid song, despite not being too innovative or diverse. I love, however, how Dio mixes up the pre-chorus words, going for all kinds of various stuff instead of “She’s creeping like a hungry cat” (which is also a great imagery); I think I’ve heard “sleeping like a hungry cat” or even “creeping like a sleeping cat” on various bootlegs, and I can’t quite make out what he goes for in On Stage medley, but it suspiciously sounds like “sleeping like a sleeping cat”, which is incredibly cute. I love cats, if you haven’t noticed. The fourth track, Do You Close Your Eyes is yet another rocker and perhaps the weakest song on the album, which in that case means it’s still damn good. Except the hilarious lyrics I’ve quoted already in the title and this anti-climactic bit with “Oooh na na na na!” (Ronnie, you definitely should’ve put a few alrights there somewhere), and its appearance in the encore of live shows, it doesn’t stand out much.

Stargazer, being the band’s arguably most famous song, stands out like a tallest tower of stone that took nine years of unbearable, back-breaking work to build, piercing the sky and outshining and overshadowing everything else around it, maybe except the face of a wizard, judging by awed, soared, inspired and frenetic reaction of the narrator when he sees it (both when the wizard is alive and not). As far as I’m concerned and as far as Rainbow’s studio works go, this is the representative Rainbow song, without any contest. Of course I enjoy Catch the Rainbow, Temple of the King, Gates of Babylon, LLRR, Rainbow Eyes (this one is the second best Rainbow song, and seeing how they went from this magnificent piece of music to a lame commercial approach saddens me to no end), or, you know, half of the material from Stranger in Us All, aka the terribly underappreciated album, none of it can beat Stargazer, just none. This song is the epicness in a nutshell, the glory in all its glory (awful, I know); bombast just so heavily spread over it it’s mindblowing, starting from this inciting drum intro and ending with neverending Dio singsong lines; there is also the best Blackmore’s solo ever written in my opinion, and to add to the whole grandiloquence, there is Munich Philharmonic Orchestra performing on Stargazer. This eight minutes long piece is a pinnacle of Rainbow career, and no cover I’ve heard can make the original version justice (including Dream Theater, which is, despite my huge love for the band, is below average and makes me turn it off pretty soon), there is just some kind of essential, primal magic captured in this song, yet to be reproduced. Because, actually, it’s impossible, I think. As I mentioned the fadeouts thing before, I must say, Stargazer is one the best examples how to do the fadeouts right (the next best example coming up in #2. Turn the speculation mode on!), because it’s just glorious. You can picture that slave worker standing amidst the desert, staring at the motionless, ruined figure of a wizard and howling, wondering what to do now. This lyrical theme is seemingly continued in Light in the Black, a nice lengthy closer for an album, with appealing vocal melodies and a meandering (in a good way) instrumental section. The band takes the all time they need to make this track work, and it really feels quite short despite all these eight minutes, before the brief conclusion puts an end to the record.

Now, I know this next paragraph won’t make a lot of sense, but I have to tell you guys about this (if you are still reading this monster of a post). Don’t get me wrong, Rising is a masterpiece and an amazing, truly brilliant album, totally deserving its place here in top three; but I feel it won’t be there if not for one thing. This thing is, I always somehow subconsciously combine Rising and On Stage (live Rainbow album released in 1977). On Stage is a fine illustration and guide how you can play an hour-length gig with six songs lasting five minutes each. Rainbow exceeded at that things, truly. On Stage features a whole load of great performances by the band, namely Catch the Rainbow, Mistreated, and Still I’m Sad. What’s funny about that, is that On Stage doesn’t have any song from Rising on it, but for some weird reason I’m thinking about those tours in support of Rising and imagining their awesomeness. That said, I don’t think Stargazer translates greatly on scene, mostly because of Ritchie’s habit of playing everything faster than in the studio. On Live in Germany 1976, there is a version of Stargazer played in Cologne, 25th September 1976, and for its seventeen minutes it’s way more awful than the studio. So I have no idea why On Stage associates with Rising in my mind, but if I would list live albums here and allowed myself to do the ties in the list, On Stage would’ve definitely been here.

Also, about things being in the list, if Stranger in Us All hadn’t have a half album of filler, it would’ve been in my top twenty, I guess, because Wolf to the Moon, Hunting Humans, Ariel and Black Masquerade are all top notch Rainbow songs. And as it seems I have no more to say about Rising, it’s time for favourite tracks.

Favourite tracks: Tarot Woman, Run With the Wolf, Stargazer, Light in the Black
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline jjrock88

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awesome choice!!

Offline mikemangioy

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This album is great, I love the songs on this one, especially Stargazer. I also like how short it is, concise and straight to the point. Cool pick  :tup
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Online bl5150

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I'm a big fan of Stargazer - the rest not so much and therefore find it hard to rate the album too high despite it having one of my favourite songs.
"I would just like to say that after all these years of heavy drinking, bright lights and late nights, I still don't need glasses. I drink right out of the bottle." - DLR

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Online lonestar

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Old guy moment..... I remember this being the last album I listened to on 8-track.


Worthy addition to any list.

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Good to see Rising, though I would've, and DID, list On Stage.
After Stargazer and Light In The Black, I don't really listen to anything else on it though.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Sacul

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I prefer DT's cover to the original :blush .


*hides quickly*

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Yeah buddy!  Amazing, classic album right there.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

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Just chiming in to say that I fully agree on both THE and tToE. The structure of the latter took some time for me, but I think it is really, really close to THE in terms of brilliance.

Never heard Rainbow in my life (at least I do not recall doing so). I guess I will check that out some time.

Offline Evermind

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Old guy moment..... I remember this being the last album I listened to on 8-track.

Now that's really cool.

Good to see Rising, though I would've, and DID, list On Stage.
After Stargazer and Light In The Black, I don't really listen to anything else on it though.

I love On Stage, but I didn't want to include live albums, so there you go.

Just chiming in to say that I fully agree on both THE and tToE. The structure of the latter took some time for me, but I think it is really, really close to THE in terms of brilliance.

At least someone agrees with me on that matter.  :tup

I prefer DT's cover to the original :blush .

*hides quickly*

Oh, man, just get out.

Though wait, you guessed one album right. You can stay.  :lol

#2
Love Over Gold
Dire Straits
Genre: progressive rock
1982


Following my fascination with work of such musicians as Blackmore and Lord, here’s another pick that may be as predictable as Rising, yet glorious nonetheless. Mark Knopfler is another favourite of mine, and while Brothers in Arms was appealing, nice and interesting, Privateering was mellow and great; Love Over Gold is wistful and unbelievable. This is the terribly underrated album full of classics, and I don’t even know where to start talking about it, again. Everything is of highest quality here, from Knopfler’s guitars and Alan Clark’s keyboard and piano performance to stellar production and sprawling songwriting.

Love Over Gold yet again proves the album doesn’t need to be long and complex to sway the listener, being only a bit longer than forty minutes and featuring even less songs than Rising (five). This album has its outstanding, very Dire Straits-ish atmosphere, offering a set of eclectic, mellow tracks with occasional tremendously intense sections, and it also has something for fans of more straightforward rock. Love Over Gold seems like an attempt to please everyone among the band’s fans, and while I’m not sure if it worked for everyone, it definitely hit home on my part.

So let’s get to the songs, shall we? This album blows me away at every listen with its very first song, fourteen minutes long piece titled Telegraph Road, which is also my second favourite song by any artist of all time. The song tells a story about a literal telegraph road in Detroit, providing a view on how everything around it was changing during a decades of years; Knopfler wrote the song being inspired by taking a trip down this very road. Mark himself says: “I was driving down this Telegraph Road... and it just went on and on and on forever, it's like what they call linear development. And I just started to think, I wondered how that road must have been when it started, what it must have first been.” As the song’s story covers a lot of years, it’s only natural the tune itself will be huge in length, and this piece is long indeed by Dire Straits standards, but those fourteen minutes fly by, just like the hours, days, weeks and years fly by in real life when you get older. Being written around one beautiful main theme and melody, Telegraph Road takes every opportunity to go off the beam and evolve into something even better, always finding the way back to its musical home. This complex, intricate weaving of song’s structure allows it to shine. It’s not your usual progressive epic, this band does it totally the opposite way; I think it’ll be sufficient to say the moment I love the most comes around 5:10 mark; but actually, picking the best moment here is like choosing your favourite child: while it may be not impossible in some cases, it’s just plain wrong. But, well, what can I do? This section gives me goosebumps every time. If you heard the song, just remember how it goes:

And my radio says tonight it’s gonna freeze
People driving home from the factories
There’s six lanes of traffic
Three lanes moving slow…


And then that heartbreaking piano solo begins, with the electric guitar entering a bit later. You know, this is almost as magnificent as music ever gets. Moreover, it’s not even the half of the song right here. It’s interesting how a lot of singers are straining their throats and lungs, making those screams or growls or anything, but Mark with his almost not singing, but reading lyrics style instead manages to evoke all kinds of emotions, just by those climactic moments where all the instrumentation and his lines become one, greater piece together. That’s exactly what I would call genius songwriting. After this moment, the story goes on from the perspective on unemployed man who lost his work after the town built around the road became uninhabited, driving us to yet another beautiful climax in this song, here:

Cause I’ve run every red light on memory lane
I’ve seen desperation explode into flames
And I don’t want to see it again…

From all of these signs saying “Sorry, but we’re closed”
All the way…

Down the telegraph road


This piano and bass moment between “All the way… and “Down the telegraph road” is nonchalantly simple, but damn, it’s one of the most touching moments in music ever, at least for me. After this, the song mostly turns into the guitar goodness by Mark, who’s playing his jazzy heart and his rocking soul out of the instrument. Remember my imaginary Best Guitar Solos list? This one would’ve been in the top three. Remember my discontent with the songs ending with fadeouts? This one does end with it, but I couldn’t care less. I’m that biased.

But, you know what, I could just ramble on about Telegraph Road forever, but there are four more songs on Love Over Gold, so onward we go to the second tune, which may be even more famous than first. I’m talking, of course, about Private Investigations, which is a weird ballad and an absolute hit of Dire Straits. Now, this song is absolutely splendid, and it becomes even better in live rendition. A mysterious, haunting atmosphere intervenes nicely with the tired Mark’s voice, narrating a day from the private detective life, using that sad and moderately hopeless lyrics, going through the man’s work’s routine. The breathtaking acoustic guitar work goes along well with subtle keyboard playing; but in the end, it’s the guitar doing all the job in the first part. During “And what have you got at the end of the day? What have you got to take away?”, this acoustic guitar ascends from great to amazing beyond anyone’s imagination, and it’s not even difficult passage or anything, even I can play it. But the soulfulness of the moment along with those superb lyrics is outstanding. Again, it sends the chills down my spine every time. And the narration is done so well, you actually pity the man, and the regret both in the voice and in the music is so perceptible. The second part of the tune is instrumental, and it comes off as some detective movie soundtrack, which I’m pretty sure was the exact intention of the band, so in conclusion, Dire Straits really know how to envelop the emotions in music.

But sometimes you need a break after those two meaningful, emotional and still fairly complex songs, so there’s a track called Industrial Disease. Despite admittedly being the weakest tune among the perfection this album offers, and while I don’t listen to Dire Straits to hear these kind of rockers, I grew to love it immensely over the years, and it’s actually pretty great, playful and light tune. I like the keyboards usage during the tune, and I love how Mark rolls those words from his tongue. There is no heavy meaning in the song; Wikipedia says that “the song takes a look at decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early 1980s, focusing on strikes and depression. For example, the absurdity of media-driven maladies is laid out in a segment of the song describing the narrator's visit to a doctor's office for treatment of his "Industrial Disease"”. Which is alright with me, I’ve always viewed this song as a break, a rocking intermission between the imaginary first act, consisting of Telegraph Road and Private Investigations, and, again, the fictitious second act…

…which starts with the title track, Love Over Gold. This song reminds me of Why Worry (or, actually, I have it backwards, Why Worry reminds me of Love Over Gold) for the same wistfulness and lightheartedness. In the very beginning there is that keyboard passage which can be a distant reference to the main melody of Telegraph Road, and oh, I adore this kind of subtle things in the music. The title track represents Dire Straits music for me as a whole, I can’t find more suitable song for it. I always liked to see Dire Straits as the unusual, rare case of a rock band, where there were no drugs or heavy alcoholism or whatever attributes were attached to any generic rock bands on that time, and, you know, this song is the image of Dire Straits for me; the peaceful people who love the nature, love their lives enough to not ruin it with anything, with their creative and emotional approach in their music; being light-minded enough and yet caring enough in every aspect of their work and hobbies. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s what Love Over Gold makes me to think and imagine.

And that brings us to It Never Rains, the final track of this masterpiece of an album. This tune has its similarity with Love Over Gold, but it’s a bit faster and less sad, but again, it’s the essence of Dire Straits showing in this song. It’s like they’re trying to finish the album on a high emotional note, but not with something like Industrial Disease, but with more serious stuff, and succeeding greatly. You know, again, for its eight minutes it feels incredibly short and sweet; the whole album is like that. It’s like you’ve only sat here for five minutes, but it’s already dark outside and you become aware of that only when the last song ends; and then you have to fight the urge to spin it again. And if you’re unable to do it, unable to resist the temptation, well, we’re much alike.

And you, you’re always the same, you persevere
On the same old pleasure ground
Oh, and it never rains around here
It just comes pouring down…


Favourite tracks: Telegraph Road, Private Investigations, Love Over Gold, It Never Rains

And that was quite a long ride, you folks, but it comes to an end real soon now. Or, if you want me to be more specific, tomorrow, when #1 will be revealed. I won’t be doing any honourable mentions of any sort, Top 50 is a Top 50, so tomorrow it will all come to a close with my favourite album of all time.

So, see you all here tomorrow, and while we’re at it, what do you think #1 will be?
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline mikemangioy

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Ooooh, man, my dad would like you. His favorite band is Dire Straits, and I think this might be his favorite album too. Me, not so much - once again, I like some songs, but they're not really my thing.
Although Private Investigations is great.







PRIVATE
...
INVESTIGATION

dun. dun. dun. dun.
Because Mike is better than Mike

Offline 7deg_inner_happiness

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I don't post very often, but I must say your #2 choice is very worthy of the spot.  I loved your write-up of the songs.   :tup

If I could add one thing: This album is incredibly well mixed and produced!  It would definitely make my top 100 if I ever did a ranking.

Kudos!
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