03/06/2007

Al Stewart - Past, Present & Future (1974)

IMHO, the highest peak in Al Stewart’s career, far more fascinating than his subsequent lavish, luscious blockbuster, The Year of the Cat both in the epic, majestic tales such as “Roads to Moscow” and “Nostradamus”, and in the poppier efforts such the brilliant “Soho”.

«As good as portions of it were, Orange was essentially a transitional effort, the necessary bridge to Past, Present & Future, the record where Al Stewart truly begins to discover his voice. This is largely through his decision to indulge his fascination with history and construct a concept album that begins with "Old Admirals" and ends with "Nostradamus" and his predictions for the future. A concept like this undoubtedly will strike prog warning bells in the minds of most listeners but, ironically, he has stripped back most of the prog trappings from Orange, settling into a haunting folk bed for these long, winding tales. If anything, this results in an album that is a bit too subdued, but even so, it's apparent that Stewart has finally found his muse, focusing his songwriting and intent to a greater extent than ever before.» (amg)

Link in comments (always appreciated)


3 comments:

DJ Radu said...

http://sharebee.com/379ff136

Anonymous said...

Radu: you've an interesting little blog here. Good work, thanks for this bit of Al Stewart. Going to look into some of the various other (multi-cultural) posts you've got here.
Good day to you,
-braden

Anonymous said...

nice one.. always looking for a bit of al stewart, and this is a goodie, way to work it radu!!................zenspacemonkey