Zarathustra

Berlin is truly fantastic. Almost the entire album feels like a memory of Jim. This album, after all, has a circular structure. The review is unnecessary; there's one that is beautiful and much more explanatory. However, it provided the opportunity to talk about this album again, so I’ll only rate the content.

sorry, I got tripped up...

Monumental album, an incredible parable of the malaise of modern man. Hopeless poetry, distressing and not easy to digest, but essential. Masterpiece. The review is entirely insufficient, it doesn’t mention the extraordinary music, nor the musicians who contributed to the making of the album, nor does it properly discuss the plot of what is truly a mini rock-opera. Anyway...

This is one of the most beautiful records in the history of rock, and to think it was supposed to be a double album and that many instrumental parts were brutally cut by the record label. The music itself, with those arrangements on the edge of the baroque, is in my opinion one of the standout features of this album, in addition to the extraordinary quality of the lyrics, to which Reed had already accustomed us. A fierce and disturbing record, devoid of hope, dominated by a sense of indifference that a man defeated by drugs feels towards life and others, even towards the blood of his blood. A bitter and disheartening description of Reed's existential distress and that of the man of 2000, capable of self-destruction. A monument, like The Wall.

No, some of these are tracks discarded from previous albums, like Down By The Seaside and Houses of the Holy (which were meant to be included in Houses of the Holy, in fact). The other pieces are more or less from what was an extraordinary creative period for the group, up until the difficulties of Presence, mainly due to the particular circumstances in which that album was composed (in less than a week, with Plant in a wheelchair and Jones almost completely indifferent and apathetic). What can be said about the album is that, as mentioned, it greatly captures the period of intense creative activity of the band; just think of the presence of very heterogeneous tracks: we find Eastern-influenced pieces like Kashmir, In The Light, and Ten Years Gone, incredible blues like In My Time Of Dying, proto-metal hard rock like Custard Pie, hard funky tracks like Trampled Underfoot and The Rover (with a simply extraordinary rhythm section), and joyous and straightforward rock songs like Houses of The Holy and Down By The Seaside, irresistible honky-tonk like Boogie with Stu, and country blues like Black Country Woman. The final tracks of the second CD do feel a bit like filler, as they don’t leave much of an impression, even though they remain honorable pieces. The review is good.

Exactly, you said it right, it's the implosion of the progressive.

I quote Aniel.

Exactly, pier_paolo_farina, and going back to that structure, they created an excellent album, also featuring a piece over twenty minutes long (The Gates Of Delirium), this time, however, much more convincing (the final movement is truly breathtaking) and two simply fantastic pieces (Sound Chaser blew me away when I first listened to it, that's a piece overflowing with originality and ideas…). Then, I repeat, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making a misstep, especially for a progressive band, which is clearly more prone to hitting a dead end compared to a band that, having found the magic formula, simply keeps replicating it ad libitum.

Sure it's verbose... If you prefer, I can write a review... :-) But I would like the album to be discussed...

For me, they have definitely gone overboard on this album; it's really too verbose and incredibly heavy. I agree with those who say this album is a glaring example of the degeneration of progressive music. Let me try to explain my opinion. First of all, let's be clear: a twenty-minute piece is already extremely demanding in itself, let alone if there are four of them on a double album... and besides, I don't think these pieces can be compared to architectural masterpieces like Close To The Edge (which is also about twenty minutes long). Returning to the main thesis, I also believe that, rather than focusing on the quality and the technical-compositional solutions that could have allowed them to achieve it, they let themselves be a bit carried away by the urge to impress at all costs: many vocal lines come across as excessively and artificially challenging, and for this reason, they don't stick in your mind, as was the case in Close To The Edge, for example. And even the time changes and the thousand evolutions of the pieces, the scores so complex, everything seems excessive and, if we want, a bit self-indulgent, rather than aimed at achieving a specific result. This is my personal opinion; I know full well that there are legions of fans who are ready to swear this is a masterpiece; for me, however, it is a really bad album. Moreover, the same members of the band (Wakeman in particular) have been very critical of their "creature." Also, the conceptual theme underlying the album required, I believe, an immense commitment and dedication compared to the band's compositional abilities (at the level of lyrics), so I don't think it is developed as it should be. In short, a righteous misstep for a band that at that time was expanding and courageous in a way it would never be again (just look at the terrible pop turn of the '80s). It’s worth a listen, though; I practically have it sitting there on the shelf, but I never listen to it. However, I believe this album can serve emerging progressive bands to identify what progressive music should NOT become (and I hope fans who love it don't take offense). A nice and pleasant review, even if I obviously don't agree with a word.