Fine tunes, rich chords, make pleasant trip down memory lane
Volkert Volkersz | Snohomish, WA United States | 06/21/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"While I will readily agree with the other reviewers that David Lanz has done better work--on solo recordings--than "English Garden," this album still works for me. Sure it borders on Muzak, but here David has proven that the music our parents complained about--in the 60s--really did have some fine melodies. Lanz builds on the foundation of these familiar tunes from the "British Invasion" with rich--dare I say jazzy?--chord structures and subtle rhythms.I frequently play "English Garden" in the background at the school library where I work, and more often than not some teacher or parent will comment on it or write down the title. For those of us who spent countless hours with our ears glued to the hi-fi speakers listening to Beatles, Stones, Hollies, Kinks, Moody Blues, Chad and Jeremy, or Gerry and the Pacemakers back then, Lanz has created a pleasant and relaxing instrumental journey down memory lane.By far my favorite cut--and the one truest to David Lanz's ethereal solo piano form--is his exquisite rendition of "Strawberry Fields Forever." While this album may not be for everyone, I think it hits the mark for aging Baby Boomers."
An Englishman's Opinion
HT Taylor | Suffolk, England | 11/18/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
""Songs from an English Garden".Not one of Lanz's better offerings.
I have been a big fan of David Lanz sinse I first heard him on"Art of Landscape" on British Television in the late Eighties,with Natural States and Desert Vision.
Apart from the brilliant "Nights in White Satin" and "Whiter Shade of Pale" arrangments I think this album does not bring out the best of his own creative style which were so spellbinding in early works such as the album's he created with
Paul Speer.
This is by far the weakest album I have heard by David,but having said that It will appeal to those fans who like his arrangments of other artists masterpieces.
If,as a previous reviewer mentioned he has left Narada for another record company,hopefully we may have more of his own compositions in the earlier style that is so familier to us all."