Word: albums
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...SOME OF MY friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead," crooned Elvis Costello in a raspy, tortured voice on his last album. Costello--the little guy in the seedy suit and black plastic glasses--sounds worried himself on his latest release. He's always powered his songs with two emotions, woman-hating sexual frustration and corporate paranoia. On Armed Forces, the paranoia takes over and twists his music into some very strange, chilly shapes and sounds...
Music takes a back seat not only in the packaging of this release but also on the discs themselves. The album cover promises "The Complete Concert," and that is precisely what it delivers. That means minutes--yes, minutes--of applause on these records. Return to Forever was a tenpiece outfit on this gig, and on record the individual band members are introduced, with applause, often with testimonials of delight, not once but again and again. All this non-music presumably reinforces the spontaneous, "live" element of the performance--but the decision to include it in this finished product is puzzling...
...MUSIC. Ah yes, well, there is music on this album, some of it very good, for those willing to wade through all the extraneous hype. Chick Corea (and RTF is Corea's band) always plays well; the success or failure of his records usually depends on the musicians he chooses and the selections he plays. The results here are uneven. Versions of flashy but vapid tunes from Musicmagic (1977) comprise the first two discs. The band is tight, but the intricate mini-fugues and pompous fanfares that highlight the horns still sound gratuitous. The vocal sections are disappointing; Chick...
Corea segues into the opening chords of his "Spanish Fantasy" suite, easily the best ensemble piece on the album. The horns really cook, belying their earlier sterile proficiency. Clarke's electric bass works beautifully, and Corea is literally all over the place--playing synthesizer, playing piano, stamping his feet with excitement. Appropriately, the encore is a Corea-Clarke duet; the chemistry between the two is obvious as they perform a free improvisation that is loosely based on the bop standard "On Green Dolphin Street...
...music on this set could have been refined down to a splendid two-disc album. Instead, RTF is relying on its reputation to sell this expensive piece of self-indulgence, and one is forced to wonder about the motives of all involved...