Tír Na HiFi

Sloop John B wrote:


Not an uber fan of Frank, but this does get played occasionally.


SJB

Hot Rats is a favourite of mine, John, one of the finest showcases of Zappa's astonishing guitar playing.  This album was unfairly criticised by some at the time as leaning too far towards jazz-rock after the more freeform adventures of the Mothers of Invention but that's nonsense in my view.  A lot of contemporary jazz-rock produced around this time and throughout the  Seventies did not display half the wit and creative ingenuity on display here.  Also noteworthy is the vocal contribution of Captain Beefheart on Wille the Pimp.  In all, one of Zappa's finest and most life-enhancing works.  Too many of my yesterdays were lost in this great music which taught me so much about the limitless possibilities that music had to offer.

Some exceptionally beautiful moments on this album.


" darkness can't drive out darkness, only love can do that "
the way this line is sung, goosebumps for me.

SJB

Middle of the night music in the middle of the evening

&

Sloop John B wrote:


Some exceptionally beautiful moments on this album.


" darkness can't drive out darkness, only love can do that "
the way this line is sung, goosebumps for me.

SJB

+1 John, great album

Really talented guy imo!

tweber wrote:
Really talented guy imo!

listening to that a lot recently. Gets better every time.

One of the greatest debut albums ever recorded.  Behind the surface beauty lies so much yearning blue-eyed innocence tempered with anguished undercurrents of deep melancholy and a despairing sense of hope.  A profoundly emotional and deeply affecting listening experience that lingers long in the mind.  I am quite at a loss to explain the mesmerising spell that this fearful and troubling music continues to exert over me.

mcq wrote:One of the greatest debut albums ever recorded.  Behind the surface beauty lies so much yearning blue-eyed innocence tempered with anguished undercurrents of deep melancholy and a despairing sense of hope.  A profoundly emotional and deeply affecting listening experience that lingers long in the mind.  I am quite at a loss to explain the mesmerising spell that this fearful and troubling music continues to exert over me.

+1

The extraordinary follow-up.  A refinement of her thoughts and a step forward in her songwriting from her debut recording. Gone is the impressionistic baroque folk to be replaced by something more rooted, more directly personal but there is something more.  The main difference here lies in the sense of unease and discomfort that I hear in the singing.  Gone is the impression of self-assurance and composure in Sill's vocal phrasing that was present in her eponymous debut to be replaced by a growing sense of isolation - there is an uncomfortable edge in her voice here, a catch in the breath, a sense of someone looking over her shoulder in distress.

What might - and should - have been and what actually happened to this young woman is something I can't get my head around.  It's ultimately pointless, though, to dwell too much on the darkness that followed.  The only answers that really matter about this woman's life are present and audible on these two albums and that is why I keep coming back to this music. So much of her cherished hopes and dreams are indelibly embedded in these grooves with startling force. The more I listen to this intensely powerful music, the less I try to rationalise its power over me.  I dumbly listen and I am reduced to tears time and again.

"Ever since a long time ago I've tried to let my feelings show
I like to think I'm being sincere but I'll never know" - The Phoenix

I seem to play ever other Tom Waits album except this one of late.