Together At Last - James Last & Richard Clayderman

Advantages: Bold, Inventive, Brilliantly Produced
Disadvantages: None

...from understated to impassioned as the pace and volume pick up. The harmonious (and highly unfashionably folky) chorus, is both infectious and completely original. Only James could pull something this grand off without sounding like cretins! As the guitars gather in intensity a lonely violin sound is added to the mix, before the song reaches a fuzzy, frazzled, glorious conclusion. Booth sings; “Daniel drinks his weight Drinks like Richard Burton Dance like John Travolta Now” It was incredibly brave of James to not finish the album with “Getting Away With It” - yet closing track “Alaskan Pipeline” is almost the definitive album closer of all-time. If ever a band were signing off in style then this track is it. The song is practically a raised hand and a faint smile from a crowded carriage as the train chugs out of the station... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great Electronic and Dance album
Disadvantages: Some poor tracks and perhaps uses too many music genres

...I have always been a fan of Moby's work most obvious tracks from the 90's in Go, and most recently the ITV Formula 1 signature track 'Lift Me Up', and also the James Bond Theme of 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. It is something about the style and the rhythm of the music played along with these songs tempted me into buying this album. I tend to find his music rather easy to listen to as the artist demonstrates in these particular tracks alone, that the music is particularly well dressed up from start to finish. Some people might find this type of music to be fairly repetitive or monotonous in that the same rhythm and style is followed throughout a particular track. This album by genre is more electronically music based compared to some of his previous albums. So instrumentally speaking the use of a keyboard synthesiser was the album's main... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: some great drum n bass moments
Disadvantages: not up to his usual standard?

...Perhaps inspired by the experimental drum'n'bass being created by Squarepusher (a recent signee to his Rephlex label), Richard D. James' third major-label album as Aphex Twin was his first to work with jungle -- though, to his credit, he had released the breakbeat EP Hangable Auto Bulb almost a year earlier. Contemporaries Orbital and Underworld were beginning to incorporate moderate use of drum'n'bass in their work as well, but this album was more extreme than virtually all jungle being made at the time. The beats are jackhammer quick and even more jarring considering what is -- for the most part -- laid over the top: the same fragile, slow-moving melodies that characterized Aphex Twin's earlier ambient works. Most overtly disturbing is "Milkman," the first straight-ahead vocal track from Aphex Twin; the song is a child-like ode... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful