CD Charts
Welcome to The CD Charts, here you will find all the latest and top selling Music cds available to buy online. You can search and locate the best selling Music cd's and have them delivered to the door. We have a large selection of Music all with reviews.
Back to Home Page > Go back a page
Music : The Moon and the Melodies
See Larger Image |
The Moon and the Melodies by: Harold Budd, Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie, Simon Raymonde List Price: £8.99 CD-Charts Price: £7.98 You Save: £1.01 (11%)Prices subject to change. |
|
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0766483570729 Label: 4ad Manufacturer: 4ad Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: 4ad Release Date: December 31, 1993 Studio: 4ad Sales Rank: 9366 Disc 1:
Related Items:      see moreBrowse for similar items by category:
Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: This 1986 collaboration between the master ambient minimalist and the original purveyors of ethereal pop delicately balances the former's hypnotic atmospheres with the latter's soft grooves and cryptic female vocals. While both artists are known for their romantic sounds, the moodier, darker tones that frequently inhabit Budd's ambient works are subverted here for a generally upbeat feeling. However the natural symbiosis between Budd and the Cocteaus makes for a charming, low-key musical marriage. These eight songs are split between light and airy instrumental compositions and groove-oriented vocal tracks. In the former style, "Why Do You Love Me?" is the most memorable, matching Budd's cascading, aqueous keyboard runs with guitarist Simon Raymondes' graceful feedback washes. The latter style is exemplified by "She Will Destroy You" which sounds like a Cocteau Twins' tune with romantic keyboard and saxophone accompaniment. Some might argue that not every track feels like a true collaboration, but The Moon And The Melodies has no exalted aspirations, rather it is designed as pretty, relaxing music, and it succeeds on its own terms. --Bryan Reesman Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - less than the sum of its partsWell, I think the Cocteau Twins were a great band and as for Harold Budd, I could listen to his lullaby piano for the rest of my life. However, I've never really thought of this, a one-off collaboration from 1986, as a successful meeting of minds. The problem is that what you have here, effectively, are two separate mini-albums spliced together. Half the tracks sound like pretty much everything else the Cocteau Twins were doing in the mid-eighties, except that if you listen carefully you can just about hear a piano desperately trying to make itself heard above the noise; and the other half of the album sounds, basically, like Harold Budd's solo work from the same period. For me, the album works best on the tracks where the instrumentation ... Read More: Rating:  - Oozing out and awayI sip my wine. Slip this CD into the player. A shimmering piano carrys me off into a distant echoey guitar. A soft melodic bassline drifts gently over a spacey drum beat and that voice, oh that voice whispering to me tales of nostalgia, yearning, heaven and abstract possibilities, all in a language I don't understand. The emphasis changes very slightly, very logically as the CD takes me through a dream. Sometimes the soundtrack is that shimmery piano, sometimes the harmonies between the bass and guitar that aren't actually there but at the same time are, create my own melodies. All the while that beautiful angelic vocal drifts in and out of focus. This is splendid stuff. If you love your ambient music or just want something completley different ... Read More: Rating: - A sprinkle of Cocteau magicThis is the Cocteau Twins plus Harold Budd, and in many ways it shares the same textures and softly sparkling sounds as Victorialand, so if you like that, you'll like this too. There's a lot more piano in this than the Cocteau's usual guitar-based music, but the pianos are heavily altered and it all fits together nicely. Wheras Victorialand was ethereal and uplifting, Moon & Melodies is Ethereal and somehow sad, but both can take you far away from the troubles of the ordinary world. Bloody & Blunt, despite its title, is one of the loveliest melodies I've ever heard. Not their best, but worth a listen for sure! Rating: - Solid 4ADFor those of you not familiar with Cocteau twins or 4ad(the label on which they recorded) you are more or less guaranteed a formula of where new age hits chill-out. Very much in the school of Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream etc but of the 80s not 70s; a 21st equivalent is probably Goldfrapp and others of the ambient genre. Ok there are exceptions such as the Pixies and Throwing Muses. Each track of tbis cd is beset with a minimalist undertone, the simplicity of which helps (with the help of a good brandy or other substance) to transcend you into to another plane of mellowness - easy on the ear to you and me. The slight downside of this album and this music in general is that it is a bit spot the difference and you wonder how they came up with the ... Read More: Rating:  - Ambient ExtraordinaireWhen I bought this at 18, on vinyl, I appreciated the vocal tracks, but the rest evaded me. Now, at 36, with 4 children, I fully understand the purpose this album holds. It's pure escape (not that I wish my life different, but you need time out). Low lights, headphones on, eyes closed and you can almost reach the world the Cocteaux inhabited. The aqueous piano of Harold Budd was an addenum to the atmosphere. 'Sea, swallow me' is the opener, and the only track I could fully recall, prior to CD re-purchase. But it still sounded as uplifting in my 2003 existence as it did in my 1986 one. As I let the tracks roll, they all came back to me. 'Memory Gongs' is pure self indulgence, while 'Why do you love me?' is aural water music. 'She will destroy you' has to rank ... Read More: |
|