Album Review: Beware and Be Grateful

Album: Beware and Be Grateful
Artist: Maps and Atlases
Label: Barsuk Records
Release Date: 17th April 2012

Maps and Atlases are a wonderfully inventive indie math-rock band, hailing from Chicago. Their second EP "You and Me and the Mountain" featured a lot of clever instrument use, as well as distinctive vocal parts from the band's singer David Davison, and driving drums behind everything. Maps and Atlases first full length album 'Perch Patchwork' combined their math-rock style with folky influences and pop inspired song structure. It was critically praised and featured mostly shorter experimental songs with interesting lyrical and musical ideas.

The first song of this album, 'Old and Gray' starts in a poppier style than their other releases, taking most of it's 5 and a half minute length to get to it's main section. While the album rocks a little more lightly than previous ones and focuses more on vocal lines, there's still a math rock element featured in the songs. The album's main single 'Fever' is another poppy excursion with a clever verse hook and a fair amount of repetition. So far the album feels lacking of the solo instrumental parts of old, although it'd be harder to integrate them with the poppier style.

Just as that thought occurs however, 'Winter' begins to play with a math-rock influenced introduction and general backing. There's some nice backing vocal parts in the song which go well with the guitars to create a good overall sound. 'Remote and Dark Years' is the black sheep of side 1 with the title being used as a simple chorus and less prominent drums. The overall feel is much more reflective than the other songs on the album, and there's more experimentation and movement away from the pop style. The first side finishes with the beginning of 'Silver Self' which continues onto the next side.

Side two begins with the far more upbeat part of 'Silver Self', which is more reminiscent of songs on 'Perch Patchwork' featuring vocalisations by Dave Davison, alongside the lyrics. There's also an extended instrumental part at the end of the song which works well. 'Vampires' features a rock influenced main riff and more driving drums alongside prominent vocals. The shortest song on the album, it's a nice break from the longer tracks with less repetition also.

'Be Three Years Old' features more of a math-rock feel than a lot of the songs on the album, but it's executed in such a way that the faster parts feel almost messy and the slower parts feel like they're missing something. Vocally it's difficult to follow, aside from the chorus and although it probably does feature clever bits of timing and instrumentation, they get a little lost. 'Bugs' is another short song, in a light almost folk influenced style. There's some nice guitar work and the song overall isn't bad but it's not the most memorable thing on the album.

'Old Ash' features sparse instrumentation at the start, which contrasts with a lot of the songs on the album. As the song continues, it develops into more of a full sound, with instrumental trills and flicks grabbing the attention at the end of each vocal line. The album's closing track 'Important' is laid back and reminiscent of the final track on Perch Patchwork in its style, although instead of getting a little more lively towards the end, it stays gentle and relaxed throughout. As an album, "Beware and be Grateful" is poppier and more vocally based than previous releases but manages to carry some of the band's old style through also. There's perhaps less to enjoy from a musical standpoint, but there's more vocals lines which you can hum from his album when compared to the last one.

Rating: 3.75/5.00

Album Review: In and Out Of Focus

Album: In and Out Of Focus

Artist: Focus

Label: Polydor

Release Date: 1970

Originally released as Focus plays Focus and re-released in the UK and USA once the band had gained some prominence in the progressive rock scene, Focus's debut album displays a far more pop orientated vocal approach mixed in with the progressive instrumentals for which they became better known later. In terms of sales, the album didn't perform particularly well originally, although it was critically acclaimed. The later re-pressings improved its sales performance but as an album it is one of their least recognised.

The first 3 songs are all in a fairly traditional verse and chorus pop style with vocal parts and no real hint at the band's instrumental proficiency. A flute solo on 'Sugar Island' is perhaps the only indication that the band's talent runs deeper than the first trio of songs might suggest. They're fairly catchy and inoffensive, I'd go so far as to say that they'd be a decent pop style band, had they continued to make less progressive music.

'Anonymous' is the first instrumental song on the album and unless you're aware of what's coming, it almost takes the listener by surprise with it's fast paced full band instrumentals and solos. The band move from section to section seamlessly, making the music more interesting than even the vocal songs preceding it. The longest song so far on the album, it almost effortlessly holds the listener's attention with the amount of things going on at once. 'House Of The King' provides another instrumental track, using the intro from Anonymous once again before taking off in a completely different direction. Its musical structure is more basic than that of the preceding track but it's a testament to the band's originality that both pieces are equally exciting and interesting.

An alternative cover for the album

'Happy Nightmare (Mescaline)' returns the album to vocal songs, although its instrumentation and style is a little more in keeping with the songs before it. It's lyrics deal with a somewhat psychedelic mescaline trip and the thoughts in a user's head, while the next song 'Why Dream''s lyrics almost seem to send a pessimistic message about the "current" state of the world. On closer inspection however, it's possible that the song is trying to send more of anti-pessimism message. However it was intended, just like the song before, it has more stylistic appeal and progressive rock flair than the first trio of songs.

The final song is an extended instrumental version of the first song on the album, 'Focus' which begins in much the same way as the vocal version but evolves to contain more of the band's instrumental prowess and ideas than the vocal version displayed. The vocal line is played by Akkerman's guitar which allows for little embellishments on the tune, and some interesting mini-solos.

On listening to In and Out Of Focus, you can almost feel the band attempting to infuse their vocal songs with the instrumental flair they show on tracks like Anonymous and House of the King. In a way there's something for everyone to enjoy, with some songs featuring a more pop oriented structure and others leaning much closer to progressive rock. Perhaps it's also fair to say that the band wasn't quite sure of the direction their music would take later on in their career. What is clear to see however, is the talent and compositional skill of all the musicians involved. This makes for an interesting listen, especially if you've heard other Focus albums to compare it to.

Rating 4.00/5.00

Album Review: The Electric Light Orchestra (No Answer)

Album: The Electric Light Orchestra
Artist: The Electric Light Orchestra
Label: Harvest
Release Date: December 1971

Sometimes incorrectly titled as "No Answer" due to a telephone mix up at their record label, the Electric Light Orchestra's first album showcases a glimpse of them with their original line-up with Roy Wood (later of Wizzard) and Jeff Lynne as principal songwriters. It features a lot more string instruments than most pop albums of the time, and although not too similar to their later work, some glimpses of ELO's general style manage to shine through at times.

'10538 Overture' is the main single of the album and rightly so as it feels the most together of any song featured on the album. In a fairly conventional pop style to start with, the later parts of the song featuring very heavy overbearing string parts which can almost be described as discordant raspy, low scraping sound effects. The album's second song 'Look At Me Now' is rather close to The Beatles song "Eleanor Rigby" in places, with prominent string parts and its general structure.

The closing half of the first side features far more string parts and even some renaissance style brass parts. At around 6 minutes each both of the songs in question are structured much less conventionally and feature some what unrelated sections and experimental parts. It's hard to determine what sort of feel the band were going for on the album as a whole, and it feels as if the pop parts are at odds with the more classically influenced numbers.

'1st Movement' restores a little faith in the direction of the album as a short instrumental track with defined sections and assured of its purpose. While the songwriting on the album before it was essentially shared between Wood and Lynne, the Mr. Radio on side 2 begins a trio of songs written by Jeff Lynne. The most easily accessible of the three, the song is essentially the second side's 10538 overture with a catchy hook and more experimental later section.

'Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)', the second of the three songs features falsetto vocals, even more strings and far less lyrical sections than most songs on the album relying mainly on its instrumental sections. The final song by Lynne on the album 'Queen of the Hours' shifts between a country influenced string vibe in it's chorus to experimental Beatles sounding verses, with the music inbetween containing the now trademark dischordant string rhythm section aside the drums.

 The final track 'Whisper In The Night' rounds off the album with Roy's vocals back again for the first time since Look at Me Now. It's apparent that his voice isn't as soothing as Jeff's and the song itself is far more laid back than some of the other tracks on the album which doesn't really fit Roy's voice as well. The album as a whole features a lot of different types of songs but only a few which point in the direction of the band's later efforts. It can be difficult to get into due to the strings which feature on most if not all of the tracks, and the fact that it doesn't sound much like their later output, but it's not so much bad as experimental and most of the tracks are at least tolerable if not good.

Rating: 2.75/5.00

Album Review: Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Album: Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Artist: Album: Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Label: Island
Release Date: October 1970

Perhaps one of  the most classically influenced progressive rock releases, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's self titled first album begins with a rock arrangement of Bela Bartok's 1911 piano piece "Allegro Barbaro" with an abundance of hammond organ and overall flair. 'The Barbarian' as they call it immediately shows the intentions and direction of the band as a whole. Without any lyrics it still manages to captivate and entertain, which is an extremely important feature of instrumental progressive rock; there's no laziness or boredom.

'Take a Pebble' has a deep King Crimson feel to it at the beginning, which is unsurprising considering that it was written by Lake, the original bassist and vocalist of King Crimson. Following the vocal section there's folk guitar set atop watery sound effects, followed by a jazz piano section. At twelve minutes, this is the longest song on the album, and until the full band joins the piano at around 9 minutes, it can feel somewhat empty yet not unlike instrumental sections of King Crimson songs.

'Knife-Edge' is another classically inspired piece given the prog. rock treatment. Based on a Leoš Janáček’ piece with a great quotation from a Bach suite on organ in the middle of the piece, the lyrical sections are kept brief and the song itself is much like 'The Barbarian' in length in that it rocks hard for the short time that it plays.

'The Three Fates' features three prominent sections; the first for organ, the second for solo piano and the third for piano trio. Again it takes a particularly jazzy feel, mixed with classical elements and is the only track on the album not to feature drums or bass. As a result it feels a little out of place on the album and more like something off their subsequent "works" albums which featured solo compositions as well as band pieces.

'Tank' is a strange inclusion in a lot of ways, although not fully a drum solo piece (there's some clavichord at the beginning), the middle of the track features Palmer performing a drum solo. This sort of thing is usually restricted to live albums, and although the beginning and end of the track almost make up for the middle, with their instrumental additions to the piece, there's no escaping the fact that it's built around the solo.

'Lucky Man' is the only real conventional song on the entire album, the first song written by Greg Lake, aged 12. It wasn't received well by his band mates, and was only recorded to fill time at the end of the album. The song isn't particularly bad, but it feels as out of place on the album as it's Moog solo does on the track.

On the whole, the band are at their best when they're wreaking havoc on a classical tune in their own rock style. 'The Barbarian' and 'Knife-Edge' are both short pieces which demonstrate the band's skill at this. The more solo based pieces such as 'The Three Fates' and 'Tank' are musically interesting, yet lack the pace and dynamic feel of the other tracks. For a first album, there's a lot to take in and most of it is good.

Rating: 3.75/5.00

Album Review: Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd

Album: Atom Heart Mother
Band: Pink Floyd
Label: Harvest
Release Date: 2nd October 1970

With a fairly famous album cover which attempted to symbolise the band's wish to explore all types of music, rather than just the psychadelic tracks for which they were known at the time, Atom Heart Mother marks a significant point in Pink Floyd's history, five studio albums into their discography and the beginning of their most well known sound. The band already had a version of 'Us and Them' from 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' and parts of the album are precursors to the sound achieved on later album as a whole.

The first side of the record is the 23 minute title track, an instrumental piece and the band's most ambitious idea at that point in their career. Split into 6 sections, 'Atom Heart Mother' is a showcase of several musical ideas which the band were attempting to tie together with some success. Although all of the band members have expressed a dislike for the track and album as a whole in retrospect, there are several redeeming features including the main theme and the less experimental parts. The middle of the suite does feel a little too directionless and experimental, without any intentions of tying together the themes and ideas contained.

There are certain similarities between the experimental parts of the and 'Echoes' on the band's next album 'Meddle'. 'Funky Dung' is the most enjoyable part of the suite as it seems to be the best combination of the band's work and the orchestral arrangement. Overall as a piece, it has its moments but its quite easy to see why the band view it in less of a positive light than their later ideas.

The second side takes a different musical approach to the first, with a song each from Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Richard Wright before the final track which can only really be described as 'very experimental'. 'If' is a quiet, charming song which showcases some of Pink Floyd's lyrical style to be used on later albums. There's a nice guitar solo and it's all very relaxing on the whole if a little ordinary in comparison to the first side. 'Summer '68' seems as if it will continue in the same ordinary style as 'If', until picking up the pace to reveal a more complex side to the song with a much closer relation to 'Atom Heart Mother' from the first side. 

'Fat Old Sun' continues the trio of songs which start gently and quietly, and takes a while to lead into its long guitar outro which is set up by the vocal first half. It's hard to choose a favourite out of the three songs, with their similar but varied approaches to quieter songs. 'Summer '68' is the only one which develops fully into other ideas, whereas the other two stay somewhat safer in their explorations. 'Alan's Psychadelic Breakfast' is perhaps the only track I'd recommend avoiding from the album; it never really develops into anything noteworthy with a few murmured lines about cornflakes here and there, and the band playing musical interludes every now and then, none of which are really all that exciting. 

Overall 'Atom Heart Mother' doesn't work well as an album; it has moments of genius in the first track, surrounded all too often by moments of overexperimentation. The trio of quiet, evolving tracks begins the second side and are really the highlight of the album, despite the fact that only one of them really develops into anything noteworthy. After ending with a few guitar parts interspersed with cereal talk, the listener is left with somewhat of an empty feeling from the album; there's no doubt it has its moments but there's nothing to really dig into. The occasional glimpses of what's to come from the band are the main attraction here. 

3.25/5.00