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If "I'm Amazing" and "The Veil" are in any way indicative of the album then I'm preparing myself for a new champion in the "worst PG album" stakes. I found both songs to be incredibly underwhelming and they left me unmoved in any way at all.
However, the live "Love Can Heal" that popped up on Youtube I did quite like.
So who knows...?
Scores of a number of Ant's piano and keyboard-based compositions, including Now They've All Gone, are available from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus.
Todd
Thank you! Legend!
One of his very best. Diverse, and yet it holds together as a unified piece incredibly well.
Wish I had a transcript of "Now They've All Gone" (or was able to play piano by ear) as I would love to learn to play it as it is just gorgeous...
Armageddon It - Def Leppard
"You try coming on when you need some/but then you don't 'cos you already did."
Lads, Wittgenstein would like a word with you...
Valtari - Sigur Ros
Brilliant album, but the overall vibe is achingly sad. Why the title track puts me in mind of a wounded refugee mother succumbing to her injuries, thus leaving her young child to wander and die alone in the wilderness I have no idea....but it does.
(Rings therapist.)
I apply VERY stringent criteria to a perfect album: from first second to last it must be nonstop brilliant. No filler, no parts of songs that are less compelling, no downturn in quality at all...
...hence why there are no Genesis albums below (the vibraphone - or whatever - solo in "Your Own Special Way" kills the album dead and "it" is a damp squib of an ending to a masterpiece album. And that's as close as they get).
Yes - Close to the Edge
Yes - Relayer
Anthony Phillips - Slow Dance
Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No.3 (Dawn Upshaw, David Zinman version)
The Blue Nile - Hats
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Johan Johansson - Fordlandia
Only when I have a CD of new original PG material in my hands (allowing for maybe a track or two of earlier single releases e.g. "I'm Amazing" etc)...
...and only when I have listened to the CD for the second time (because the first might be a dream)...
...will I start to believe his new album might be nearing release.
Whether I like it or not (and he hasn't disappointed yet) is another matter. "UP", for all its airless overproduced I-don't-know-how-to-properly-end-these-songs-and-so-I-won't vibe, had some absolute gems on it, "Rabbit Proof Fence" is one of my personal favourites, "Scratch My Back" and "New Blood" were uninvolving and that's being generous, "I'm Amazing" and "The Veil" underwhelmed me quite considerably. The live "Love Can Heal" I did like though.
So we'll see. Hopefully.
I used to have a book of misheard song lyrics. Some were fanciful, some a bit weird. Two Genesis related entries were:
Illegal Alien:
Original: "It's no fun being an illegal alien" becomes, bizarrely,
Misheard: "It's no fun living in a neon arena."
(I'm sure it isn't, but I just don't hear that.)
Invisible Touch:
Original: "She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah"
Misheard: "She sees the hat-rack, is she gonna touch it?"
(Probably a euphemism for something...)
Two others I've always remembered are:
Bad Moon Rising:
Original: "There's a bad moon on the rise"
Misheard: "There's a bathroom on the right"
Smoke on the Water:
Original: "Smoke on the water, fire in the sky"
Misheard: "Slow motion Walter, fire engine guy"
(So completely not actually that, but in my head it is now!)
So that's 6 consecutive decades (1970s to 2020s) in which Genesis have had a UK top 10 album.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Looking forward to the 01/01/2030 release of the album to accompany the "Fading Lights" Rest Home World Tour to maybe make it 7 in a row...
No doubt not a general enough question for time limitations but here it is anyway for the hell of it:
Steve, hello from New Zealand. A terribly specific question: your solo on "So Long the Day" by Tony Patterson and Brendan Eyre is absolutely magnificent, a yearning, swooping, howling snarl of a guitar solo that transforms a superbly moving song into a masterpiece. How does that solo/a solo like that come about? Do they send you a tape of the song with a note saying "fill in this bit here anyway you like"? Do they supply a description of the vibe/style they think it should be to guide you towards what they want? Do you record something, they listen, critique, back and forth etc. until they have what they want?
My two cents worth.
I'm not a Fish (or Marillion) fan - just haven't listened to either enough, and am honestly not really inspired to delve any deeper.
But out of curiosity, having heard that it was to be his last, and seeing some videos listed in my Youtube feed, I listened to his new Weltschmerz album and after a couple of days of casual listening came to the conclusion....that it is outstanding. Simply outstanding.
"Rose of Damascus" and "Waverley Steps" are superb musical journeys, deeply involving and wonderfully put together, "Garden of Remembrance" is utterly, gorgeously heartbreaking, and "Walking on Eggshells" and "Man With a Stick" are memorably excellent too, with the remainder being at worst, merely very good. It really is a fantastic album, and if this is Fish signing off, then in my (completely uninformed, therefore relatively useless) opinion, then he is doing so in superb fashion.
Max Richter
Henryk Gorecki (but when do I not?)
Genesis (see above)
Johann Johannsson
Frost*
Passion is his masterpiece. A 67min slice of perfection. Tender, driving, moving, contemplative, soothing, sinuous - but above all unified, a complete, whole work. My 3rd favourite album of all time. Genius.
