The headline reads January to July, but I couldn't find a single interesting album or single release to actually come out in January. Even February had only one. Alice Cooper was now no longer a band but a solo artist, and following last year's disappointing Muscle of Love the new album Welcome to My Nightmare was a major improvement. Exactly like the title implies, this collection of new songs had a horror related theme, and even used the iconic genre actor Vincent Price as a narrator at one point. I enjoyed several of the songs in the dark and cold nights of winter.
In March, the activity was slowly picking up as there were two interesting new releases, one of them even "Album of the year" material. It wasn't the third album by 10cc called The Original Soundtrack, even though that one was a perfectly fine piece of work as well. It contained the group's best known song I'm Not in Love, but most of the more interesting songs were located on B side. If you like, please check out songs like The Second Sitting for the Last Supper, Brand New Day or Flying Junk. All of them are high quality rock/pop songs that are occasionally also thought provoking.
However, everything mentioned before in this particular blog entry pales in comparison with the West German electronic music group Tangerine Dream's new album Rubycon. An instant classic, it was released on 21 March on the same Virgin label as Mike Oldfield's output so far; proving once and for all that Richard Branson really had talent when it came to signing promising newcomers.
Tangerine Dream had begun their recording career already in 1970, but until their fourth album Atem (1973) they had remained strictly an underground favorite. Following that album's favorable reviews in the UK, they were picked up by Virgin and released their fifth studio album Phaedra for that label in 1974. This was already considered a major breakthrough by many, but I was never too excited about the album. The sixth one however blew me away.
As you can hear above, Rubycon is one of the most important album releases in the electronic music genre ever, and in 1975, way ahead of its time. At this point, Tangerine Dream's classic lineup was in place. It would unfortunately break up only a couple of years later. The group leader Edgar Froese had his best ever collaborators in Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann. Sadly, it was Baumann who left for a solo career following 1977's excellent soundtrack album Sorcerer, and things were never really the same after that for Tangerine Dream.
My absolute hard rock favorite of the spring was Bad Company. They released their second album Straight Shooter on 2 April. Its standout track Feel Like Makin' Love got a considerable amount of radio play also in Finland. It was also released as a single, but that didn't take place until several months later, in August.
I had mixed feelings about The Snow Goose, the third studio album by Camel, also out in April. It wasn't anywhere near as challenging as Mirage had been. The music was inspired by a melancholic short book, which I even read because of the album, and there were no lyrics at all. The music wasn't particularly progressive in nature but it was beautiful and, most importantly, it was easily accessible.
For me, the last point became the album's shortcoming. The Snow Goose was easy to like at first, but also to grow tired of relatively soon. Even now, I would happily pick up Mirage or Moonmadness (out next year) to listen to, but would be less likely to do so with The Snow Goose. For those listeners seeking an effortless entry to Camel's music, this could be a good place to start. It is by no means a weak album; it just isn't very challenging either.
In May, a new amazing debut album came out that would also remain as the group's last. The UK based Jet - not to be confused with the Australian group active in 2000's - achieved art rock perfection with the A side of their self titled release. The opening track Start Here is embedded above; also please check out Brian Damage that can also be found in YouTube. Looks like the album's real standout track Tittle-Tattle however isn't, which is a pity.
Jet were hardly beginners: there were two ex-Sparks members in the lineup, as well as one member who had played in Roxy Music and The Nice. At the time they were labelled as a glam rock band, and I suppose that is partially true, but their compositions and arrangements were way more ambitious than those of the more regular glam rock acts. Magnificent art rock with some prog influences and a glam rock wardrobe would be a pretty accurate description of Jet.
Around these times, Greenslade released their fourth and final seventies album Time and Tide, which was also clearly their best. I don't have the exact release date, but since recording was completed already in February, the album would have been out around May or June. The brilliant instrumental track Catalan was even released as a single, and it was also my favorite piece on the album. In the video embedded above, you can also listen to the next track on the album following Catalan.
I had now turned twelve years old, summer holiday was almost there, and with Jet and Greenslade there was plenty of brilliant music to listen to. In this respect, life was good, and when it came to finding still more new and interesting music, a lot more was going to happen...
June saw another incredible debut album release. The satirical, punk oriented group The Tubes were originally from Phoenix, Arizona, but at the beginning of their recording career they had already relocated to San Francisco. Their self titled first album was one of the most stunning releases of the year. Its opening track Up from the Deep remains one of the decade's best and can obviously be labeled as progressive rock, although the majority of the group's output cannot. It even got radio play in Finland soon after its release.
Unfortunately, Up from the Deep cannot be found in YouTube in a proper, original version. Instead, let's embed and listen to another classic track from the same album, What Do You Want from Life? - a deliciously satirical look at American consumerism. There is a small fault at the beginning: about two or three seconds are missing from the beginning of the track. Otherwise, it sounds fine, and as fitting as ever as a description of first world lifestyle.
For some time, I had been paying attention also to another German group besides Tangerine Dream. Popol Vuh made lots of music to the films of director Werner Herzog. Of these soundtracks, Aguirre is undeniably the greatest. The film itself had already come out in 1972 but I hadn't seen it and became aware of it only through this excellent soundtrack release.
For some reason, Aguirre the album came out three full years after the film. I don't even know the month, let alone exact date, but since Popol Vuh had already released one studio album called Das Hohelied Salomos in February 1975, this one would more likely have been published later in the year. So, let's place it here and then move onward to July and its two releases worth discussing.
Another year, another Gentle Giant album. Free Hand was already their seventh. This time, the group did the twin masterworks routine: they opened the album with two great songs in succession, then seemed to lose most of their creativity with only OK tracks played thereafter. Since there were only four additional songs, this wasn't too bad: one third of the album was great, two thirds passable. So far, the group seemed to be holding on to their progressive rock roots, so even their weaker songs were not failures in terms of artistic ambition.
The opening track Just the Same is embedded above; an energetic and exhilarating prog rock song. The second one, On Reflection is embedded below. It follows the tradition of songs based on the group's vocal acrobatics, previously explored in album tracks like Edge of Twilight and Knots.
We have now only one final album left to discuss before we take a break. On 25 July, Caravan released their last album worth mentioning, jokingly called Cunning Stunts. That's right, Metallica was not the first one to use that title after all. Not only did the album close the group's golden era; it actually fares quite well against For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night which, I opined earlier, is Caravan's best album.
This one could then well be their second best. Songwriting is overall on a very strong level, although the real culmination point comes already at the beginning. If Cunning Stunts is Caravan's second best album, then surely its opening track The Show of Our Lives must be their best individual song. My summer holiday was for the most part behind me, and another school year would commence in a few weeks. But listening to high quality music like this made all those worries tolerable. It almost made them disappear.
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