Search - Robert Urban :: Elegies

ELEGIES follows Robert Urban's 1996 critically acclaimed acoustic-rock debut CD "godless". Again, the multi-instrumentalist Urban performs all the vocals and nearly every instrument himself. ELEGIES combines elements of both heavy progressive acid-rock and dreamlike balladic art-rock, and is laced throughout with orchestral, electric guitar and synthesizer textures. As provocative and introspective as ever, an additional air of haunting reminiscence pervades all the album's lyrics and music. Some of the songs chronicle the artists experience as a gay man in today's world. Notably, this recording enables Robert to stretch out on guitar - be it electric, acoustic, synthesized, bottlenecked, wah-wah'd or wildly overdriven. ELEGIES consists of seven original songs, plus Robert's own novel, art-rock arrangements of works by 20th Century "classical" composers Charles Ives (Elegie), Albert Roussel (Serenade) and Oliver Messiaen (Louange). The CD opens with a pulsating, one-love anthem THE WAITING SONG, and includes two love ballads - JOEY SAILS AWAY & MY LOVE FOR YOU. The YES-like I'M ONLY HAPPY WHEN I'M FREE and the NIRVANA-like THE RIVER are virtual autobiographies. The acid-metal TRAGEDY is perhaps the bleakest portrait of humanity ever put to song. The melodramatic ELEGIE & MARCH OF THE FALLEN LOVERS, from a poem by Gallet, is sung in the original french. The Beatlesque J'ACCUSE points an angry finger at the destroyers of earth's ozone layer. The instrumentals SERENADE & LOUANGE, originally written for flute & violin respectively, are herein performed by Robert on electric/synth guitar.