All The Kings Horses is Great
William Thon | Granada Hills, CA USA | 11/08/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"All The Kings Men is part two to follow a masterpiece ALL THE KINGS HORSES - Not listed and I don't Understand why. But to review All The Kings Men is easy - A very pleasent trip with TLPD's once again filled with fun lyrics and imaginary instrumentals - But please try and find ALL THE KINGS HORSES before this one. You will love it - Its by far the best music written in the new millenium and I have collected all the LPD's cd's since the start and KINGS HORSES is the best ever. Belongs in the the halls of music for the gods. Cheers."
Good, but ultimately disappointing.
Alexiel | United States | 03/10/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
""All The King's Men," along with its sister album "All The King's Horses" is the latest
studio release from the ever-prolific Legendary Pink Dots. While it really is a good album
if you think about it, ultimately it comes off as a bit unsatisfying and disappointing. "All
The King's Horses" I would say is the superior album, and to compare "...Men" to
relatively recent releases, it ranks in my estimation quite a ways below "A Perfect
Mystery," and "Nemesis Online." Going back chronologically, I'd say it's the worst
full-length album of new material since 1988's "The Golden Age," which I didn't think
was that great.Sounds bad, but didn't I just say it's a good album? Allowing for what I expect from a
Dots' release, it is a good album. The quality threshold of Dots' albums is so high that
even their bad ones are better than the best works of other bands in my view. No other
band has for so long so consistently put out great albums in my opinion.One of my problems with this album is that out of 10 tracks, 3 of them are instrumentals.
Despite the fact that one of them is very good, generally I think the Dots' instrumental
tracks tend to veer toward experimental throwaways.What's worse is that the technically mixing of this album is very strange. It's not bad in
the lo-fi 80s Dots way, but it does interfere with the enjoyment of this album. The vocals
on some tracks tend to be far too much louder than the instruments. To give you an
example, on my stereo to obtain an optimal listening level for "Hallway of the Gods" (a
Dots album with stellar mixing) I usually have to turn up to 4 1/2. For "All The King's
Men" I had to turn it up to 6 or 7, and then the vocals blew me away. This problem is
somewhat alleviated if you have a very good surround-sound system or listen to the album
on good headphones (I highly recommend either one).Now, onto a run-down of the songs:Cross Of Fire - Honestly, there's not much to say about this song. It strikes me as being
ultimately forgettable. It's not bad, but it's not very good or memorable.The Warden - This song is the highlight of the album. If I was a record promoter, I would
choose this song as the single; it is by far the most commercially viable song on the album.
It starts out with a great organ piece that sounds like it could have come from the
soundtrack of the excellent video game series Castlevania, and then leads into a soaring,
singularly haunting lament. A very good track.Touched By The Midnight Sun - Another great track, probably my second favorite on the
album. It's very spacey, like something from "9 Lives to Wonder" or "Chemical
Playschool 8-9." In fact, it reminds me most of "The Artificial Silence" from the latter
album. A stripped down piece, consisting primarily of out-in-space vocals, spacey effects
and birds singing, as you can imagine, this is a nice song to listen to after a
marijuana-smoking session.Rash - An instrumental, but a great one. Very mechanical sounding, very neat, and a bit
spooky, with some great background effects. This song reminds me of "Invaders in the
Raita," also from Chemical Playschool 8-9."The Day Before It Happened - After Rash, the song quality of the album begins to take
quite the nose-dive. A poppy piece that starts off timid and quiet, but picks up and gets
better in the second half. I didn't much care for this track.Brighter Now - "Brighter Now" is a grand, sweeping track that leads into an orchestral
march, resplendent with very emotional vocals. I know, it sounds good, and usually I
absolutely love Dots' songs answering to that description; yet this one falls very flat with
me and makes no connection whatsoever. I can't explain it, I feel like I should like this
track, but I don't. It has all the ingredients, but doesn't come through.Marz Attacks - I've listened to this song quite a few times to give it a chance, but itremains essentially a throwaway instrumental.Sabres At Dawn - The album begins to pick up again a little! Sabres At Dawn, while not
as good as tracks 2-4, is a delightfully little piece, an electronic waltz reminiscent of those
you'll find more commonly on Edward Ka Spel's solo works. Quite nice! Takes a while
to grow on you."All The King's Men" - An 11+ minute opus... these types of Dots' songs are sketchy.
You have your magnificent ones like "Hallway," "Andromeda Suite," and "Premonition
13" to name a few and then some forgettable ones, like those on "Chemical Playschool
10" or "Malachai." This one, however, is quite good. It starts out very techno-like, and
progressively gets heavier until its almost industrial; after a while it degenerates into
chaotic noise, and then goes back to techno.However, the effects of this song are tremendous! The first two times I listened to it, I
thought it was simply good. Then, one day after smoking a copious amount of marijuana,
I put my headphones and cranked this track up. The way the instruments and sound
effects dance circles around your head when listening to this song on headphones or with a
good surround sound hook up, is quite the feat of aural engineering. When the vocals
kick in toward the latter part of the song, I nearly jumped out of my seat. The vocals are
sufficiently unsettling, but when you listen to them with headphones on, it feels as if
Edward is talking directly into the back of your neck, like you can feel his breath close on
the nape of your neck! I later tried listening to this on headphones while completely
sober, and indeed, no two ways about it, it is a remarkable thing, but you can imagine on
sensual and disturbing it is when listening to it half-baked to the stars. The long, drawn
out sounds of what I presume to be bombs dropping is also incredible. As I've said
before, a great track.The Brightest Star - A 10+ minute extended instrumental jam, notably for the striking
violin pieces, but otherwise forgettable.So as I've said before, this is a good album, but disappointing, because while 5 of the
tracks (2,3,4,8,9) are good, the rest are pretty much easily forgotten."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1