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Post by BSJ on Aug 20, 2014 13:06:09 GMT
H W,
You are very generous and kind.
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Post by jrmugz on Aug 20, 2014 19:51:54 GMT
Here are my thoughts after playing it a lot today.
"The New Stone Age" - Interesting percussive intro meets spaced-out unique and apocalyptic therepeutic song of remorse. Creative and avant-garde.
"She's Leaving" - "It's Over" type of lyric, meets big 80s sound. Kind of a run of the mill song, that doesn't do much for me, though it is a nice tight arrangement.
"Souvenir" - Keyboards and melody is the strength, good vocalist on this track.
"Sealand" - Beautiful and peaceful instrumental.
"Joan of Arc" - A decent song. For me personally, all the best stuff on this CD follows this song.
"Maid of Orleans" - Very nice piece, and I like the clearly real drums used in it. Nice follow-up to the previous song.
"Architecture and Morality" - Very cool piece, I can see why it would be the title track.
"Georgia" - Good of an eighties tune as I ever heard.
"The Beginning and the End" - A very strong finishing song, maybe my favorite.
Overall, the keyboard melodies and arrangements are very good. To me, personally,the CD has a good start, and a great finish with the run of songs following "Joan of Arc".
I will definitely be adding a few of these to my itunes.
So good stuff, and thanks for expanding my horizons. Have to admit I wouldn't have considered giving it the time of day, if you didn't post it, and my first play of it, it didn't sink in how good it is.
I can see from the videos of the songs on youtube, that the band was very into the songs when playing them, and have a really good vibe going with them.
So cool and unique stuff, for sure; thanks for sharing it. I will continue to play throughout the week, since it is "CD of the Week", and sharing any additional thoughts.
Also, I will try to get to those videos you posted yesterday, when I get a chacne, and let you know what I think.
Jim
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Post by Horacewimp on Aug 21, 2014 7:49:18 GMT
That's a great review Jim, thanks for the time spend on listening to the album and detailing you views and comments.
I'm glad you like some of the songs, I can highly recommend the OMD greatest hits CD, it would make a great addition to anyones iTunes collection.
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Post by queenofthehours on Aug 22, 2014 16:57:07 GMT
I'm glad you like some of the songs, I can highly recommend the OMD greatest hits CD, it would make a great addition to anyones iTunes collection. I can endorse that recommendation. I have an OMD greatest hits CD and would listen to it obsessively before I found ELO.
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Post by jrmugz on Aug 23, 2014 17:18:39 GMT
I'm glad you like some of the songs, I can highly recommend the OMD greatest hits CD, it would make a great addition to anyones iTunes collection. I can endorse that recommendation. I have an OMD greatest hits CD and would listen to it obsessively before I found ELO. Alright, next paycheck, will get me a copy from amazon/ebay. Thanks for the recommendation, guys. Jim
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Post by jrmugz on Aug 23, 2014 17:34:25 GMT
The drum machine often makes for good effect; sometimes I wonder if actual drums would have enhanced it. But I realize that may be imposing my paradigm on it, without fully soaking it in, so I will continue to listen to it throughout the week, before my final analysis. For some reason when in the studio they tend to use the drum machine. The band has four members one of which Mal Holmes who is the drummer, so when they play live the drum sound is definitely different and better in my opinion. The keyboards and melodies seem to be its main strength, like in a song like "Souvenir". The seem to have a knack for writing catchy pop songs, check out Enola Gay which is from 1980 and has very clever lyrics and History of Modern from 2010. Those are two good songs; glad "Enola Gay" is on the greatest hits CD, I will be getting soon. Jim
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Post by jrmugz on Aug 23, 2014 17:36:55 GMT
I absolutely love OMD and have done for many years, long before ELO came into my life. This is probably the reason why I enjoy ELO’s 80 synth period so much. ‘Souvenir’ will always be a favourite. I’ve never really understood their obsession with Joan of Arc though. This album has two songs about her.
I know, Horace, that you said OMD have no ELO connection that you know of but there is one small one. Andy McClusky put together the girl band Atomic Kitten and wrote many of their songs. One song that he didn’t write was this, ‘Be With You’ :
Which, as you can hear, borrows shamelessly from ‘Last Train to London’.
Uh, maybe "shamelessly borrwos from 'Last Train to London" would probably be an understatement, to say the least. I hope Jeff Lynne got some of the writing credit for it! Jim
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