coolermaster

Embarrassment... Yes, when I read certain comments I only feel embarrassment... "little disc"? "Chill voice"? Sometimes I'm torn between laughing or crying about this site... Then I think of the various Amy Winehouse and our own Giusy Ferreri, Laura Pausini, and thank goodness I laugh.... Krall, far from having invented anything, has been the main responsible for that Swing revival of the '30s and '40s, from which the famous "crooners" drew... is this a crime? Perhaps if one doesn’t listen to "Ascension" by Coltrane or "Sketches of Spain" by Miles Davis, they are merely poor mediocre pop singers? "But do me a favor, as Totò would have said".... Krall exudes (she's Canadian) American-ness from every pore, perhaps recalling the most fortunate historical-cultural moment of that country... Listening to her albums, Cary Grant and James Stewart come to mind, the great Music Hall and the crooners who represented the good American bourgeoisie, her cinema, her voice.... And given the ups and downs of history, and the state in which jazz found itself mired in the mid-'90s (the post-fusion hangover was still latent), this perfect, impeccable breeze of '40s or '50s croonerism is most welcome... These timeless melodies with updated outfits, masterful arrangements, and Krall's splendid and sensual voice... If we also add her personal and professional partnership with another great (of rock) musician, Krall has only enriched her repertoire by importing elements of refined and cultured POP, which too can be sophisticated... In this, I believe Costello, early Elton John, Billy Joel, Nick Cave have taught a lot... It may not please, and that’s not debatable, de gustibus, but please don’t assign her adjectives worthy of a chart-hungry little tart... Because Krall inhabits other galaxies! Regards....

one of the most underrated masterpieces of Canterbury school progressive... Engaging melodies, very warm, silky, synthesizers used sparingly and for sonic decoration... until the apex of mockingbird, a delicate and poignant ballad... Absolutely to be rediscovered.

The true gem of the album is "gli angeli," which ends with one of the most beautiful solos of his entire career, and even the lyrics, in their simplicity, strongly remind one of Vasco's early days... Damnably true, authentic...
Best regards

Of course, no one bothers to mention Gilmour's solo in the AHM suite, which I consider to be one of the greatest (in its simplicity) guitar solos of all time... that will influence bands and others in the decades to come... That piercing guitar, sharp as a razor, yet heartbreaking, melancholic, I would dare say apocalyptic... All of this in 1970... Hendrix died that year and the "guitar heroes" were still far off... although Page and Blackmore picked up on the Hendrixian teaching... But Gilmour brought innovation, without which we cannot evolve...
Best regards.

Well, yes, I admit it… I've always been a fan of the Floyd, but if someone were to ask me the famous question: what would you take to a desert island… well, DSOTM wouldn't be among the works of the Floyd… DSOTM is the first brick in the "wall" that will take shape six years later… Very similar, if not musically, in spirit… just like in The Wall, in DSOTM there are 3 gems: Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, and Us and Them… But the album ends there, though… weighed down by sound liaisons that are sometimes irritating, sometimes unnecessary…
Fortunately, the Pink Floyd, with Wish You Were Here and Animals, will take a step back… And they will return to that healthy iconoclasm of their early works… Not by chance, WYWH is much more similar to Meddle or the unjustly forgotten Obscured by Clouds, which for me is a gem in their career along with More. Dark Side lays the groundwork for Waters' dominance, a conceptual and musical dominance, quite different from the vision of Gilmour and Wright, the former being Rockettaro, the latter psychedelic…
For me, every time I listen to it (and I have been for 22 years), it seems that DSOTM is an unfinished work, and yes, why not, overrated…
Then, I put on the cosmic madness of Meddle, Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma… Or the cold, disorienting, complete perfection of Wish You Were Here, the summa of Progressive, Cosmic Rock, Psychedelia, and the essence of the "seventies sound"… And I make peace with the band once again.
Best regards.

Well, yes, I admit it… I've always been a fan of the Floyd, but if someone were to ask me the famous question: what would you take to a desert island… well, DSOTM wouldn't be among the works of the Floyd… DSOTM is the first brick in the "wall" that will take shape six years later… Very similar, if not musically, in spirit… just like in The Wall, in DSOTM there are 3 gems: Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, and Us and Them… But the album ends there, though… weighed down by sound liaisons that are sometimes irritating, sometimes unnecessary…
Fortunately, the Pink Floyd, with Wish You Were Here and Animals, will take a step back… And they will return to that healthy iconoclasm of their early works… Not by chance, WYWH is much more similar to Meddle or the unjustly forgotten Obscured by Clouds, which for me is a gem in their career along with More. Dark Side lays the groundwork for Waters' dominance, a conceptual and musical dominance, quite different from the vision of Gilmour and Wright, the former being Rockettaro, the latter psychedelic…
For me, every time I listen to it (and I have been for 22 years), it seems that DSOTM is an unfinished work, and yes, why not, overrated…
Then, I put on the cosmic madness of Meddle, Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma… Or the cold, disorienting, complete perfection of Wish You Were Here, the summa of Progressive, Cosmic Rock, Psychedelia, and the essence of the "seventies sound"… And I make peace with the band once again.
Best regards.

Holdsworth, look, I listen to your namesake along with other greats of Jazz, just to start with... Yet I love Queen! Schoenberg said it, he said a load of nonsense, sorry to tell you... So when you look at the Sistine Chapel or the David, do you say: what a load of crap... Well, yes, those are easy things to understand... Not like a painting by Fontana, Balla, Picasso, Mondrian, Magritte... What the hell are you saying?
These are different things... Art reminds us, the Greeks taught us... And the Greeks were all about "simplicity"... Read Marcus Aurelius (a Latin pro-Greek) or Plato... Come on...

Here are the usual comments... Of course, you are all Sinatra and/or Streisand in here? You play the piano better than Willem Kempf, Rubinstein, and Hancock put together, I assume? Let’s not even talk about lyrics... I imagine Mogol would give you a serious run for your money?
Then I hear phrases like: if he/she put more effort... those phrases give me goosebumps... Yes, because Italy is the only country in the world where a singer-songwriter must be committed, must reveal some hidden truths, some philosophical theories...
When 90% of the foreign music that has always been praised talked (I’m mainly talking about rock) about breasts, asses, sex, and assorted nonsense... But can you imagine, huh? If it was Jimmy Page or Muddy Waters holding the guitar... WOW... Sublime pieces, poetry...
Even though, when you look closely, it was about a shag in a '58 Chevy with red leather seats... But can you imagine? Because I ask myself? Why??
Dolcenera’s first albums are beautiful, played and arranged with great care.... She has a voice and grit to spare, no doubt about it... The lyrics? Well, I remember "Luminal" immensely, just to name one, or that one on the delicate theme of "pedophilia" where she literally tears the piano apart and lets out desperate screams to emphasize the topic...
Dolcenera has an incredible voice, and just by watching any live concert you can understand it!!
Yes, she has a flaw, it’s true... Being born in this country of fools...
If she had been born in the USA, she would be next to Emmylou Harris and many others...
Regards

For me, I repeat for me, the absolute masterpiece of TD.. I still remember the first time I listened to the sinister and wonderful: "3AM at the border of the marsh of Okefenokee"… and my mind in the absolute silence of the room raced to a story by Clarke… And I felt discomfort, a familiar discomfort, yet so deep that I had to interrupt the listening… Masterpiece… If you’ve already done so and listen to it, it takes you on stellar journeys to the edges of the cosmos and consciousness…

I consider innuendo one of the cornerstones of the '90s... That said, I would like to make a few clarifications. First of all (as far as I know), the first band to incorporate flamenco (a reinterpretation of the famous Asturias by Albeniz) into a Rock song were the Doors in '68 with "Spanish Caravan"... Not to mention Miles Davis (and this is Jazz), who devoted an entire album to it (Sketches of Spain), along with other references during the Jazz-Rock or Fusion era... Iron Maiden are among the fundamental groups of Heavy Metal, and this is recognized by many critics... Just as Led Zeppelin (some of their songs I have always loved) have been "overrated", Imho... Their legacy is practically nonexistent... Whereas for the evolution of rock, a phoenix that has died and been reborn 1000 times, BLACK SABBATH were seminal, having codified a genre and an attitude that would be called Heavy Metal and Metallers ten years later... Well, the legacy of the Maiden is very much present, starting from a kind of post-punk rather than NWOBHM... They laid the groundwork for Progressive, Symphonic, and Neoclassical METAL... and this is a fact, not an opinion...
Then there are cross-genre groups, those that cannot be categorized, groups that have no heirs because you cannot take, imitate, absorb without COPYING.... Just as Pink Floyd stood for Progressive and cosmic rock, Queen stand for ART ROCK... They have borrowed from and transformed so many styles throughout their career that it's impossible to classify them... I HATE GODDAM LABELS!!!
I doubt the criticism was unanimous... Certain critics attacked them until '75 because they were already a bit pompous, because MAY as a guitarist was pathetic, but there was Freddie to lift the judgment... Then "A Night at the Opera" came out, and everyone was silent... for another 3 years... Then the "pop things" started... uuuuuuhhhhh, my goodness, sacrilege for the Scaruffoids and down came the beatings... And it was right there that the audience began to truly love them and elevate them as the most important band on the planet... Also because, and I’m not discovering hot water here, the Queen were a STAGE BAND, stage animals... Where they gave their best.... Hence the ovation from the masses...
Ossqui