Didn’t We/Paper Chase/Name Of My Sorrow/Lovers Such As I/In The Final Hours/Macarthur Park/Dancing Girl/If You Must Leave My Life/A Tramp Shining
Actor Richard Harris and songwriter Jimmy Webb get together to produce an unlikely classic. A Tramp Shining includes the lengthy single MacArthur Park which reached No. 2 in the States and No. 4 in the UK. Would anyone like some cake? (US:4)
"The artist's first collaboration with composer/producer Jimmy Webb is a great record, encompassing pop, rock, elements of classical music, and even pop-soul in a body of brilliant, bittersweet romantic songs by Webb, all presented in a consistently affecting and powerful vocal performance by Harris. The production and arrangements by Webb were some of the lushest ever heard on a pop album of the period, with a 35-piece orchestra. Strangely enough MacArthur Park, the massive hit off the album, isn't all that representative of the rest of the record, which relies much more on strings than brass and horns, and has a somewhat lower-key feel but also a great deal more subtlety."
"This album squarely rests at the intersection of camp and genius. It's dated and over-the-top and it works perfectly. Harris brings the drama to Webb's gorgeous song suite, and while you may wish Glen Campbell were wrapping his vocals around these instant classics you can't resist the results. Timeless."
"There are classics on this album such as Didn't We and The Name Of My Sorrow and A Tramp Shining. This album is the one I play when my heart is breaking. No one could describe it better than Jimmy, or sing it with such soulfulness as Richard Harris, whose unique voice and style has an angelic, haunting quality to it."
"This is one of those rare comings together of two great artists who between them created a stunning whole greater than the sum of their considerable parts."
"When I play MacArthur Park for my stepson and his friends they laugh and tell me that it's 'overproduced', has 'poor arrangements', that 'the chorus comes in constantly at anti-climatic times', that the lyrics are 'hilarious', the orchestra sounds 'syrupy' and that it's a perfect example of '60s excess'. What do I do? I tell them they're wrong, wrong, wrong!"
No comments:
Post a Comment