Search - Norah Jones, Coldplay, Dido / Gabriel, Pascal / Statham, Paul Armstrong :: Symphonic Rock

Non-classic

Thomas Ley | Zürich Switzerland | 09/11/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Once upon a time (at the end of the 70s) the London Symphony Orchestra had the idea of producing "classic" or rather orchestral versions of classic rock and pop songs. They made five essential albums from 1977 to 1984. A huge success.



Alas, the label "classic rock" or "rock classics" or "symphonic rock" is all over the place these days. It had started after the LSO's initial success: Everybody suddenly recorded similar albums which quickly deteriorated into easy listening. While the first five albums interpreted true classic songs from the Beatles or the Who or Pink Floyd or even Rock'n'Roll or some traditional songs ("House of the Rising Sun", for instance) the "new" symphonic rockers just took songs from the top of the pops of the day.



But worst of all was the dumbing down of the arrangements. It shows with this recording here. These are just instrumentals, faithful replays of the original songs, same rythm, same sound (complete with synthesizers), even same length. It's just plainly boring and most of the time much worse than the original pop songs.



And it's not what the original idea was all about: to discover the symphonic quality of modern pieces - how would the classical composers have dealt with the same musical material? In the first LSO arrangements were hints of Ravel and Gershwin and Elgar and Holst, even some avantgarde techniques. Ever compared the Boomtown Rats' "I don't like mondays" with the wonderful and disturbing 10-minute-monster the LSO made of it? Or heard the all-strings-version of "Whole lotta love"? Or the Bolero-version of "You really got me"?



And then everybody, including the LSO, started to make some sort of James Last meets Lloyd Webber. The temptation to make a quick buck was just to much, I guess. So skip this one, look for the true classic Classic Rock. They are not hard to find."

Great Sound

A. Morris | Augusta, GA USA | 05/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ok, this album is not for everyone, it is only for those who truly appreciate music and know how to reconize truly good sounding music. It isn't exactly what I would cruise down the road with the windows down and turned up loud - but it is superb for relaxing at home, chilling, working and not wanting some loud screaming of lyrics or talking in general to interrupt your workflow (if you are like me and don't like dead silence when working, this is PERFECT!) As a matter-in-fact I have it playing right now as I type this.....give it a shot, but only if you are a true music lover!"

Good background music

C. Jagen | Woodridge, IL United States | 02/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a good CD for background music for just hanging around or having a party of any sort."