Various Artists ['Feel Like Making Love' - 40 Classic Rock Ballads]This is a lovely double disc Rock compilation, bringing together lots of anthemic Rock songs, Various Artists discs are plentiful on Ebay, and just searching with a limit of £1, it brings up over 4,000 discs in the UK, but really good compilation albums are actually an art form, it's easy to scrape together a bunch of songs and push it out as a collection, but it's hard to bring together a well chosen collection that revolves around a theme or an era, that doesn't stink of scraping the barrel to fill it up, or have some sore thumbs that are just out of place on the disc[s], so it's great to have such a varied, yet logical couple of discs that just go together, this collection is more than the sum of its parts.
It's a compilation taken from a 20 year span of 1972-1992, the front cover photo is truly excellent, a well posed shot of a couple on a Harley Davidson, the lettering is also especially well done [how many good compilations are spoiled by rubbish lettering?].
The two tracks which stood out from the pack were tracks 5 & 8, i guess the usual culprits, they're two of my most favourite songs, they regularly appear on other compilation albums, and they're certainly welcome here, and here's a synopsis of each of these tracks,
5 Toto - Africa, a song which got to No1 in the USA and Canada in 1983, and reached No3 in the UK, very popular, and the epitome of Soft Rock, i always thought that the song started 'I hear the drums echo in the night', when checking it out it's really 'i hear the drums echoing tonight', i think my lyrics sound better!, the central idea of the song was African drumbeats, and it starts with a percussive intro [0:00-0:10], with additional marimba and congas, and then the keyboard synth comes in, the vocals [by David Paich] are soft an ethereal, and it's those repeating synth chords that really make the song, the chorus is strong and anthemic, and is blessed by the support of melodious backing singers, one of those songs where everything comes right.
8 Boston - More Than A Feeling, this song didn't do so well in the charts, but in retrospect has probably hit deeper into the psyche of society by the way it's everywhere, and that can in part be attributed to the title, which can be used to imply / promote almost anything, there's a universal-ness about this wonderful song, starts off with an acoustic guitar fade in, again with ethereal vocals [by Brad Delp], that rise and soar into a stratospheric falsetto scream, of course aided by recording techniques, i close my eyes and i slipped awaayyy...', the chorus is truly anthemic with hand clamps and harmonies, and there's a central soaring guitar solo [by Tom Scholz] which mimics the lyrics [2:28-2:58], a timeless classic.
5 Toto - Africa, a song which got to No1 in the USA and Canada in 1983, and reached No3 in the UK, very popular, and the epitome of Soft Rock, i always thought that the song started 'I hear the drums echo in the night', when checking it out it's really 'i hear the drums echoing tonight', i think my lyrics sound better!, the central idea of the song was African drumbeats, and it starts with a percussive intro [0:00-0:10], with additional marimba and congas, and then the keyboard synth comes in, the vocals [by David Paich] are soft an ethereal, and it's those repeating synth chords that really make the song, the chorus is strong and anthemic, and is blessed by the support of melodious backing singers, one of those songs where everything comes right.
8 Boston - More Than A Feeling, this song didn't do so well in the charts, but in retrospect has probably hit deeper into the psyche of society by the way it's everywhere, and that can in part be attributed to the title, which can be used to imply / promote almost anything, there's a universal-ness about this wonderful song, starts off with an acoustic guitar fade in, again with ethereal vocals [by Brad Delp], that rise and soar into a stratospheric falsetto scream, of course aided by recording techniques, i close my eyes and i slipped awaayyy...', the chorus is truly anthemic with hand clamps and harmonies, and there's a central soaring guitar solo [by Tom Scholz] which mimics the lyrics [2:28-2:58], a timeless classic.
