benzo24

The few negative criticisms this album has received (especially in Italy) seem a bit forced and contradictory to me. Contradictory because you cannot accuse Cohen of fatigue or forced creativity (he's someone who can wait nine years if he doesn't want to make an album!), and to review this album as an unnecessary parenthesis in his discography is simply not true. First of all, Dear Heather is the album that strays the most from his previous works, where the canonical form of the song is often abandoned; I recall that this term "canzoni - songs" has been used by Cohen to title as many as six albums!! This is precisely what has disappointed some fans, who probably (like me, after all) expected to hear the usual Cohen album. The second point is that this work is conceptually very deep, and without understanding the lyrics, it is almost useless to listen to it. In fact, if we take the first track, based on a poem by Byron, the author speaks of a disrobing, a disrobing that he effectively carries out throughout the album. Cohen strips these compositions of all embellishments, even often putting his legendary voice in the background, and observes everything around him with a disenchanted gaze. A director shrouded in darkness!! This work is inevitably tied to the artistic formation of the Canadian poet; it is linked to the beat generation, and it's quite obvious that in a country like this, resistant to change and innovation, Dear Heather would raise a few eyebrows.

It's the exaltation of the superfluous!!!

This album(s) disappointed me quite a bit. Announced as a masterpiece, it is actually a routine work for someone like Cave; indeed, it is definitely below his standards (which had already lowered with Nocturama). If he had limited himself to releasing only half of the songs, it would have been much better.

It was Roky Erikson himself who around 1982 declared that a Martian lived inside his head. Tommy Hall, the electric jug player, got lost in the desert in a state of confusion after taking a ton of acid, while guitarist Stacy Sutherland claimed to be in constant communication with the Madonna and Bob Dylan. But this is just a small part of the stories and legends (90% of which are all true!) that surround the 13th Floor Elevators.

Great album! Even though it sounds a bit dated today, it's all thanks to Bob Ezrin's reckless "over-the-top" production.

The cover is poorly designed and sad, although the booklet overall isn't bad. It contains everything it should, lyrics, information about the musicians and the recordings. Roky had been sentenced to three years in a criminal asylum because he claimed insanity to escape a life sentence (he had been caught with a seed of marijuana!!) When he came out of that place, Roky was never the same again. It is undoubtedly one of the saddest stories in music, yet on the contrary, his records are not sad at all; rather, they are very energetic, vibrant, and full of hope.

Interesting proposal! However, not convincing since you assign it a genre that, from what you write, you don't know at all. I don't know the album or the band, just as you don't know what folk music is. You should inform yourself and listen a bit more!! Most of the milestones in music are folk!

Akron, staying in the musical realm, is very famous because it’s the city of Devo! And that's why it’s often mentioned whenever something interesting comes out. It’s an industrial city, and to make a comparison, it’s a kind of American Liverpool (we're still talking about music) and as J. Arthur (also from the area) says, there isn’t a true musical (or human) evolution in Akron, but rather a de-evolution!