pier_paolo_farina

Depressing is Gabriel's music, in my opinion. All groove and little mobility from a harmonic standpoint. As a musician, he thinks like a drummer. As a composer, like a pure singer, that is, like a melodist. He doesn’t know chords, he doesn’t love them. It bores me after two or three tracks. With Genesis, he was tremendously more effective; Banks and Rutherford thought about giving him consistent, varied, and creative musical foundations.

I love Poco. I don't like "Crazy Eyes" (the song), muffled by the pretentious arrangement. However, I really love "Magnolia": it's the masterpiece of this album. It's a good thing that Furay left, as it allowed Rusty Young to come forward as the group's main songwriter. And Young is a more brilliant musician than Furay, not just as an instrumentalist (he's a virtuoso on steel guitar and dobro).

My favorite album by Toto. The fourth one has those two masterpieces, but not much else in between. This one has at least three masterpieces: "Pamela," "Mushanga," and "Home of the Brave." I would like to point out to the reviewer that:
_On the use of drugs by Kimball and Frederiksen, there was no controversy: the band was able to keep these things to themselves, and besides, the drummer was also heavily into it (dying a few years after this album), and no one ever thought of kicking him out. Kimball was let go for being unprofessional, Frederiksen for not being able to sing on pitch.
_The singer Williams had already debuted on the previous album Fahrenheit; this is his second album with Toto.
_"You Got Me" is not a ballad; it runs at 140 bpm, it's a funky rock (not great).

@Superboia: I wasn't aware of these exhortations from Bruce and Baker in favor of the Strato... useless anyway because this had been Gary's main guitar for many years... used in 70/80% of the cases already in his blues albums as well as in the rock ones, once he got past the '80s phase with the usual Jacksons and similar junk. Moore would pull out the Les Paul (the one gifted to him by Peter Green in the early '70s) for instrumentals and more atmospheric ballads.

You cite "Wheels Of Fortune" as a perfect callback to the previous Doobies albums... but sure, it's the only one on the album, apart from "Turn It Loose," of course! The reason is simple; it's the only track where Johnston plays the main rhythm guitar: his groove, his way of hitting the strings are unmistakable and maxed out on personality. I agree with you about the group photo in Chinatown... when I entered that neighborhood, many years ago, and stood in the exact position of the photographer (just beyond the great south entrance gate) to take the same shot, I felt like crying from the emotion! I don’t understand why you take offense at the definition "classy easy listening" regarding Steely Dan (one of the many possible definitions for their wonderful music)... what do they make, classical music? Opera? Their music is popular, so light, the best it can be, but light music.

A discreet album by a seminal band that has taught everyone how to use rhythm guitar in rock. Cliff Williams's bass plays its part and is perfectly intelligible, often hitting the eighth notes, while the guitars are in staccato, the drums keep the tempo without overdoing it, and the singer rides on very high notes, so in low frequency, there’s nothing else but kick and bass. So if you can't hear it, it's time to take those iPods out of your ears and use two speakers. The band is extremely, proudly repetitive, which makes all the snobs of change at all costs wrinkle their noses. The voice is an instrument among instruments; it serves only to charge up the rockers and let them vent in the refrains. The simpler they are, the better (for them and for their fans). The lyrics don’t mean anything; they are ridiculously stupid tales of sex, drugs, drinking, and car races... they also serve only to let the singer sing. Angus's solos are clean, in tune, well thought out, academic, never extravagant or contemplative, and they are, rightly so, brief because the man knows he doesn't have too much magic in that regard. The magic of AC/DC lies in the interplay between the guitars of the two brothers, in the musicality and drive of Angus's riffs, in the supreme talent of using pauses, syncopated guitar moments so that these cyclical moments of silence become music, become rhythm, become power, contributing to melody and rhythm as much as, if not more than, the played phases. The sound of the drums is also important, dry, almost uncompressed, reminiscent of another era, pulsating.