SOULLESS 4 GUITAR FLASH FULL

Indeed, his insistence that there are things in the Black Meadow that should never be revealed strikes many students more as scholastic selfishness (“it’s my secret and I’m not telling you it, so ‘nyah nyah’ to the lot of you”) than scientific caution. Lambert keeps his research close to his chest, however. But… like the Bermuda Triangle, the Mary Celeste and the Tunguska explosion, the public’s appetite for more exploration has never lapsed. It’s getting on for a decade since researcher Chris Lambert first went public with his investigations into the manifold phenomena that haunt the area, and the legends that take those hauntings back to medieval times. And it made even Yes non-fans wonder if they shouldn’t go back to the older albums, in search of more of the same…. It was brave, it was bold, and it was blindingly fabulous. Yet it didn’t feel out of place, didn’t elicit another tired yawn, and ultimately, it didn’t fulfill any of the destinies that normally await a superstar-goes-solo prolusion. Olias of Sunhillow was released in the summer of 1976, at a time - the history books tell us - when the UK music scene was gearing up for the seismic shock of first wave punk, and the likes of Thin Lizzy, Dr Feelgood, Motorhead and Eddie and the Hot Rods were already setting the scene. So much more going on, so many more pieces slotting into the picture, tribal percussives that dance around your head, keening chants that haunt the dark corners… Anderson himself admitted, listening to it recently, that it’s reawakened his urge to finally record a successor. It’s still a great sounding record, and even more so when you tire of the stereo mix and succumb to the 5.1 assault. And, though Anderson still sang in the same Yes register that itself was a proven acquired taste, it fit the melodies, it fit the lyrics (a lot of which, in fairness, remain indecipherable), and it magicked up a mood that saw Olias emerge not merely the finest of all the Yes solo records, but the peak of Anderson’s activities all decade long. Gosh, he had guts when he didn’t have to pause them in mid-mauling so the piano player could throw in a three hour solo. Boy, the boy could write some good tunes. An all-the-things-about-prog-that-you-really-didn’t-like album. And, again, the pre-release portents were ominous.Ī concept album. Solo albums, of course, were a disease that afflicted a lot of mid-seventies giants, and the results were traditionally tawdry.

But Anderson was taking the brief a little further - he was making it on his own, as well. With the Yes-shaped mothership taking a well-earned rest, the individual crewmen all headed off to make LPs of their own. The pre-release portents weren’t promising. B-sides “Killing of a Flash Boy” and “Europe is our Playground” were as good as anyone else’s number one hits.“Trash” is a sashaying slice of pure glam heaven “Saturday Night” is radiant beauty personified “Everything Will Flow” is yearning delight and, just three years old at the end of disc two, “Flytipping” spins us back to the majesty of Dog Man Star and Suede’s vibrancy remains imperious. “We Are the Pigs” was a startling choice for 45 release, but its inclusion here clearly states that the band do not regret it in the slightest. But move on from there and the glories get greater.

Suede’s initial run of singles, from “The Drowners” to “Stay Together,” was peerless at the time, and it remains so.

The lulls get less time to remind us how dull they were the highs get more space in which to spread out. Or there’s the two disc set, which mixes and matches between the two themes and is, in fact, the most enjoyable of the two.

SOULLESS 4 GUITAR FLASH FULL

In fact, you have a choice of two full stories - a four CD version that effectively confines all the a-sides to discs one and two, and all the b-sides to the remainder… think of it as an expanded version of the old Sci Fi Lullabies collection.

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