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Topic: what was your first reaction, when you first heard this album?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Korkesova Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2006, 05:27

Quote (hiawatha @ Aug. 23 2006, 14:18)
As long as you realize that "sing to me like the very first sing" is not proper English :)

How is it right ?

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gbcrvh Offline




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Posted: Sep. 02 2006, 14:57

I bought today Islands and Earth Moving.  Once upon the time I said I would never buy these two and to be honest everything listenable was after included on Platinum Collection.. However today I was walking next to new Fopp shop in London when I noticed that all MO albums (including DVDs!!!;) were 5 ponds.  So I took Elements DVD and these two albums.  

After first listening EM is better than Islands to me.  I believe it is even not that bad.  However I really really love EM song.  While I like more pace on Platinum Collection I did prefer vocal version on  EM album.  Actually as I write I'm playing EM song in loop for 5th time now.  It make me also visit this forum to see what others had to say too.
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trcanberra Offline




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Posted: Feb. 15 2008, 23:00

Well, just had my first listen an hour or so ago - I enjoyed it - though I didn't think it was as good as any of the other Mike albums I have been catching up on (though I like it more than Orchestral Tubular Bells).

So, happy I bought it, will listen to it again, liked a few of the songs a lot, thought it sounded like Mike was coasting.
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Bassman Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 05:57

Dammit, isn't anyone going to acknowledge that "Far Country" is one of the most poetic love songs ever made?  Yeah, I know it was written for one of his kids (or so I've read), but that doesn't diminish the universality of the lyric.  First time I heard the album I thought:

1)  Wow, "Far Country" is amazing.  Four minutes of great, romantic pop music.  Nice bass lines.

2)  The title track has a fantastic vocal.  Gutsy and soulful.
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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 07:57

I'll agree that Far Country is one of Mike's greatest songs. The thing that really does it for me is the guitar duet between Mike and Adrian Belew. Such love, and longing. For me, it's one of the greatest moments in Mike's music.

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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 12:08

Quote (raven4x4x @ Mar. 16 2008, 07:57)
The thing that really does it for me is the guitar duet between Mike and Adrian Belew. Such love, and longing. For me, it's one of the greatest moments in Mike's music.

I wouldn't go that far, but yes, that's one of the highlights in the album - especially how they have such different styles of playing, Oldfield with the melodically rich phrases and Belew achieving the same effect with just two or three different notes. That is brilliant. And yes, I'm one who things the album would be far better if Belew had sung in other songs, instead of that Max Bacon "yell until my lungs explode" guy.

My reaction was rather iconic - upon listening to Holy, I thought "wow, maybe this album isn't so bad after all!", but when I listened to Hostage... "ouch, okay, it probably is". Memory fails me, but I don't recall any album that features such a wild contrast in quality on the two first tracks.


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Alan D Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 13:32

Quote (Bassman @ Mar. 16 2008, 09:57)
Dammit, isn't anyone going to acknowledge that "Far Country" is one of the most poetic love songs ever made?

Yes, it's odd that it hasn't come up in this thread until now, though there have certainly been some heartfelt tributes to this song on this forum in the past. It's one of the great unanswerable creations, not just by MO but by anyone, and would alone make it worth buying the album, even if everything else were utterly dire (which fortunately isn't the case).

There can't be many songs that aim so high, trying to express the idea of a mystical link between two people, and succeed so completely.
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Ray Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 13:50

I bought it when it came out and probably had very high expectations but  I remember being slightly agast (shocked) and thinking... That is a  Shame that i'm no going to like any more of Oldfields music, Holy put me off the most.

It put me off for a while and at first (I had a tape) i didnt play it much.  But later (several years) i started to not dislike it so much.

Now i like some bits of some tracks.  But I guess when there is no really good new stuff about one goes back to the albums and tracks you hadnt listened to much and you get immersed in them to the point you start to like it.  You listen deeper.  When you do that anything can sound incredible.  The bits i like are the guitar bits.

Ray  :cool:


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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 22:24

I couldn't stand it. I bought the cassette right after it was released and was bored out of my skull. At that time there were 2 bands making similar commercial pop/tenor voice hits, GTR(Steve Hackett and Steve Howe's effort) and Mike and the Mechanics. Very Emu Proteus 1 stuff. I guess MO felt the need to compete.

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Bassman Offline




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Posted: Mar. 16 2008, 23:52

A common theme that I pick up on in a lot of these responses is how we, as listeners, revisit older works and gain a new appreciation for them.  As though time needed to work some kind of magic spell on us and grant us a different perspective.  As regards EM... yeah, it was 80's pop, but it was MO's version of 80's pop (okay, almost 90's pop).

And Alan, you expressed my sentiments beautifully.
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trcanberra Offline




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Posted: Mar. 17 2008, 05:26

Quote (Bassman @ Mar. 16 2008, 05:57)
Dammit, isn't anyone going to acknowledge that "Far Country" is one of the most poetic love songs ever made?  Yeah, I know it was written for one of his kids (or so I've read), but that doesn't diminish the universality of the lyric.  First time I heard the album I thought:

1)  Wow, "Far Country" is amazing.  Four minutes of great, romantic pop music.  Nice bass lines.

2)  The title track has a fantastic vocal.  Gutsy and soulful.

OK - I admit it - Far Country is great  ;)

No - honestly - awesome song.  For me it stands head and shoulders above the rest on the album - the vocal on it is brilliant.  Some of the rest are pleasant enough pop songs, even found myself humming Runway Son the other day.

For those of you from Oz - don't you think Runaway Son would make a great John Farnham song?
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 02:12

My initial response to "Earth Moving" was that it's better than "Discovery", but I don't care much for pop songs. However, "Runaway Son" is fun, and although it's always risky to make such speculations I wonder if it's at all autobiographical. Mike, after all, is listed on the Web as a Catholic.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 02:29

"Far Country"? No, I can't listen to that. I have a personal blindspot for songwriters who alter the pronunciation of words so that they fit the song. (It's called "false stress"; and even Brahms was guilty of it occasionally, so Mike's in good company.) When I hear "country" pronounced as "cun-tree" it just grates, on this personal scale. "Innocent" commits the same crime, spoiling a rather nice tune. Interestingly, "Runaway Son" doesn't suffer from this problem (from memory); as I've said before, I like this song. The melody races along like its subject matter (content reflecting form - a big tick), and the rantings of the whisky priest in the background are unserious enough for the song to be taken seriously.
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Alan D Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 04:40

Quote (nightspore @ May 17 2008, 07:29)
"Far Country"? No, I can't listen to that. I have a personal blindspot for songwriters who alter the pronunciation of words so that they fit the song. (It's called "false stress"; and even Brahms was guilty of it occasionally, so Mike's in good company.)

Not only Brahms. It happens in virtually all opera, with every other line, I'd have thought? I suppose I don't notice it because the language is usually French, or German, or Italian, and I'm just following the libretto with a translation - but aren't the words being forced into all kinds of unnatural contortions, there, in order to fit the music? I thought it was part of the operatic game: the awkwardness of the libretto, and the music succeeding in spite of that! Or have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick?

'Far Country' has never bothered me in that respect, though I can see how it might become an irritation for someone else.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 05:25

It's true that in bel canto opera the singer is expected to embellish the vocal line. But if you listen to, say, a non-bel canto opera like Mozart's Don Giovanni, an aria such as "Il mio tesoro intanto" is sung in perfectly pronounced Italian. (The ritornello may have flourishes, however). Good examples in English are provided by Gilbert and Sullivan, where the words are so seldom distorted that the occasional lapses are glaring. But I was mainly referring to lieder.
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Alan D Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 06:24

I think I don't understand the difference between an embellishment and what you call 'false stress'. No matter. I'm inclined to think that this isn't a question of 'good' or 'bad' taste (whatever they mean), so much as whether a particular quirk happens to disturb a particular individual or not, when a certain convention is flouted.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 12:01

With bel canto singing, coloratura, etc it's the sheer amount of playing with the pronunciation of words that cues the listener into knowing that a different convention from that of the simple setting of words to music is in play. But I agree; it's just a convention. I suppose we tend to admire cleverness in art, and when we perceive that words are being distorted any way we like to fit a simple tune it just doesn't seem very clever.
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Matt Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 12:25

Quote (nightspore @ May 17 2008, 17:01)
With bel canto singing, coloratura, etc it's the sheer amount of playing with the pronunciation of words that cues the listener into knowing that a different convention from that of the simple setting of words to music is in play. But I agree; it's just a convention. I suppose we tend to admire cleverness in art, and when we perceive that words are being distorted any way we like to fit a simple tune it just doesn't seem very clever.

Hmmmmm, if you are referring to Far Country, I had always thought that the stretching of "Faaaar Cooountryyy" and "Faaaar I Seeeee" were deliberate to reflect distance rather than "being distorted any way we like to fit a simple tune"?


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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 12:44

Quote (nightspore @ May 17 2008, 17:01)

Quote
I suppose we tend to admire cleverness in art, and when we perceive that words are being distorted any way we like to fit a simple tune it just doesn't seem very clever.


I can`t say I`ve really noticed that perception of word distortion your refering to there regarding Far Country.That said I`m not particularly fond of the vocal on that track anyway.I can see where you`re coming from I think though.  The Manic Street Preachers for example I find completely unlistenable just on that whole trying to fit the melody to the words thing.It`s clearly evident on just about every song I`ve heard by them.On the other hand though. "Word distortion" itself can be used to good effect sometimes if it`s done in the right way.Hugh Cornwell out The Stranglers used to do that with real good effect every now and then I felt.I love the way he purposefully mis-pronounces words sometimes.A couple of songs off the top of my head would be Just Like Nothing On Earth(pronounced Uuurgth)..And Big In America(pronounced Americuurrr)..It just kind of gave them that little added tongue in cheek slightly misanthropic vibe to them.Which in both cases fitted really well into the theme of the song I felt.And kind of made them more unique in a way as well.

Obviously most of this is a matter of personal taste anyway.But like I said earlier I really have a problem listening to most of the vocals on this album.It just sounds like a really poor collection of AOR/Eurovision Song Contest failures to my ears.You know I was`nt too fond of Barry Palmer`s vocals on Discovery either.But the stength of most of the songs on that album,and the less overblown production of it all I suppose.Meant for me at least I could enjoy that album when I first heard it.Still sounds pretty good now I think.
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Harmono Offline




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Posted: May 17 2008, 13:26

When I first heard EM I wanted to forget about the whole experience but now I like some of the songs. Far Country and Innocent and the guitars on Blue Night, Far Country and the super corny See the Light. It's basically the guitar playing that makes this
album worth listening.

There's a popular music critic and radio presenter here who often points out how he hates it when people strech syllables like in Faaaaaar Coooountryy. I don't get it. Ofcourse it doesn't sound natural but what song does? In singing a voice is given a specific pitch, it never sounds like normal talking. And there is no such thing as normal singing (besides the fact that one has to stay in key). It's a matter of opinion ofcourse.
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68 replies since June 05 2006, 19:05 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

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