Sweetpea
Group: Members
Posts: 1476
Joined: April 2007 |
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Posted: June 29 2007, 14:09 |
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I'm completing my MO CD library and Heaven's Open seems to be one of the least favorite albums, so I was surprised to enjoy it on first listen. I've had the album on replay for the last couple of hours.
I was somewhat reminded of Bryan Ferry's late 80s and early 90s work (such as Bete Noir) while listening to "Make Make", and that's probably mostly due to the sound of the female backing singer(s), but also in some of the rhythms.
I understand that Mike has been openly critical of his singing. Now, my voice is pretty horrendous, but if *I* were making music, I'd insist on singing just for my pride's/ego's sake. I think it's a credit to MO that he has, more often than not, 'spared' his listeners. And I say 'spared' in quotes because I think he underrates himself - his singing on Heaven's Open sounds quite accomplished. But I'd have a hard time picking his voice, here, out of a line-up of other rocksingers, which may be a backhanded compliment, for that means it was neither poor nor particularly distinctive. It works well with the material, though, sounding both passionate and controlled.
My current favorite part: "Gimme Back" 
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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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), and I do like No Dream. Music from the Balcony is kinda weird, but in the same way that Amarok was weird the first couple of times I heard it and I'm addicted to that now.
)
