Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
In the land of the LP the album sleeve is king. And so it was with The War of the Worlds.
As a child I spent a lot of time going through my parents LP collection, picking out and listening to albums purely because of what was on the cover - we can all agree the artwork on this particular cover is magnificent. As was the rest of the image in the pamphlet of artwork inside the sleeve. I spent many evenings listening and looking - I think I made my dad (who it belonged to) dislike it a bit as I listened to it so much.
I never knew who Richard Burton (who narrates and plays the protagonist) was before this, and haven't heard a voice quite like it since. It oozes eminence. The rest of the cast isn't too shabby either, featuring Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) and Phil Lynott (I don't need to tell you who he is).
Musically it's not bad either, some extremely tidy studio-rock sprinkled with synth, strings and...other sounds, slightly experimental synth. Some of the guitar tones sound like I could drink them. I wish more music was written like this, it's tough to find albums that sound so rich - the bass guitar is particularly enjoyable throughout as the parts are often as neat and catchy as the main guitar lick.
As if that's not enough, it also made me more interested in science fiction - and that can only have been a good thing, am I right?
No comments:
Post a Comment