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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 September 2011 CE
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Sep 26, 2011, 13:21
Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 September 2011 CE
Sep 26, 2011, 13:02
machineryelf wrote:
IanB wrote:

Tori Amos - Night of the Hunters


Is this any cop, gave up her couple of releases ago, too much filler but I listened to the Bee Keeper this week and enjoyed it far more than I remembered


It seems like a really good idea - writing songs to and/or under the inspiration of existing classical works and with my SOLUS3 hat on the idea is really attractive, especially as Julia is a bona fide classical ártist on the harp, but it doesn't really come off for the most part.

It's not something I would listen to in preference to a record of songs by Mahler or Strauss that's for sure. Her piano playing is a big feature but that's a bit too blocky for my taste a lot of the time and there is not enough texture in her playing to really carry it off. Tori Amos isn't a bona fide classical pianist and that hampers the effectiveness of the album.

For a singer songwriter record there is just too much going on to make the songs stand out. At times it sounds like two different records playing at once and not in a good way. If you listen to this and then play say Peter Hammills' live album with Stuart Gordon then the contrast is stark. You can say a lot more in that mode with a lot less going on.

When it does work, which is when it is a bit more stripped back and empty, it does sound gorgeous but I find myself listening to the music and the playing rather than the song overlays. So it's an interesting listen and an ambitious effort but falling between two stools it is not essential I don't think. If she had worked with say John Cale then it could have really been something special.
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