Listening to this song in 2020, you’d be forgiven for thinking Stevie Wonder could somehow see 43- 47 years into the future of American politics. These lyrics seem just as relevant today, if not even more so, than they did in 1973 when Nixon was president.
Kickstarted’s vocal melody is quite simple yet fits very well to the music. After the first verse, a guitar enters and plays some melodic phrases. These phrases do what they’re supposed to do and do it well: serving the song. My first thought when I heard the guitar sound was that it reminded me of Robert Fripp’s and Adrian Belew’s…
“Sailing” is the second big song on the album. This also feels like the heart of the album and is definitely one of the highlights of the album and of Cross’ entire career. “Sailing” could also be seen as the anthem for the whole genre of Yacht Rock as it embodies everything that Yacht Rock is: smooth, melodic, calming, gentle, maritime-based lyrics etc.
“Alison” is Pop-perfection with Shoegaze trappings. It’s absolutely perfect.
“Alison” was the first Slowdive song I heard and I instantly fell in love with the hazy and fuzzy soundscape of this song. Hazy and fuzzy are two words I would use to describe the sound of Shoegaze. Other words I would use are; “underwater”, “floating” and a sensation of “numbness”.
The main riff of “Paperback Writer” is one of the best Beatles riffs ever in my opinion, and it feels like a successor to Lennon’s 1965 composition “Day Tripper”. Starr’s drumming during the main riff features interplay between the kick- and snare drum. The drumming works perfectly together with the guitar riff. MCartney’s bass enters with a high-pitched bass fill.
One thing that really draws me to her music is her use of unusual guitar tunings. From these tunings, she can play chord shapes that in standard tuning would be difficult or impossible to play. These tunings and chord shapes often result in chords that are unmistakably “Joni Mitchell chords”. These “Joni chords” appear throughout Ladies of the Canyon as well as Song to a Seagull (1968) and Clouds (1969).
How did Genesis fare after the departure of theatrical front man Peter Gabriel? In this review of the first Phil Collins- fronted Genesis album I will talk about each song. I will go through songwriting, musicianship, arrangement, production and even the album cover!
My first impression of Hällas was “Uriah Heep meets Iron Maiden” or “This is what Iron Maiden would sound like if they were a 70’s Hard Rock/Prog-Rock band with a John Wetton- like vocalist”. There are also touches of Rush, Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis in their sound.
This album was somewhat controversial among Iron Maiden fans at the time for introducing guitar controlled synthesizers (guitar synths) into their sound. I had listened to all the Iron Maiden albums leading up to Somewhere in Time before listening to it, and I don’t think it’s a departure from the sound they established on Number of the Beast in 1982.