Customer Reviews

Heavy Soul: The Anthology (Best Of)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A near-definitive comp covering the first four years (five albums) of this intriguing and often misunderstood band and the late Vincent Crane. Every album gets at least 5 tracks, and one (IN HEARING OF) is presented in its entirety, minus one track. That alone is amazing enough, but what's even better is that the selection is representative enough so that this is all you might ever really need of the Rooster. If you're at all curious about the band (or, more properly, bands - - the personnel wavered constantly with Crane the Fripp-like mentor and only constant) do yourself a favor and pick this up. It might pique your curiosity even further, and all of the albums are worth your time. It's also mostly chronological, which makes for an interesting listen. Also, a few non-LP tracks (the great 'Devil's Answer' single included) are thrown in to liven things up as well. The early Rooster was mostly heavy, curiously jazz-tinged riff-rock with lots of organ and piano. Tracks like the archetypically heavy 'Death Walks Behind You' and the utterly haunting 'Nobody Else' (an interesting take on isolation) are standouts. By the time Chris Farlowe took over the vocal chores on the fourth LP MADE IN ENGLAND Crane had steered the sound toward a more soulful soft-funk format (the vocals had always leaned that way anyway) to which Farlowe was perfectly suited, fresh as he was from the ashes of Colosseum. His faux-testifying introduction to the intense, piano-driven 'Breathless' is hilarious. Most fans of the early Rooster scorn the later stuff; personally I like it all and find later tracks like the sweeping 'Can't Find A Reason' and the lovely instrumental 'Moods' quite enchanting. Atomic Rooster were analogous to King Crimson in some respects, not the least of which was Crane's continually evolving musical direction. A great collection from a fondly-remembered and missed man and his bands.

Warning: the songs mentioned here don't appear on the Anthology 2-CD but on "Heavy Soul", also a 2-CD compilation of Atomic Rooster but altogether another one! Being originally a progrocktrio formed at the end of the sixties by Vincent Crane (organ/vocals) and Carl Palmer (on drums) of later E.L.P. fame, this band developed several musical styles but alas not to a big degree. They had ample success with only a few songs. The bandleader was desperataly looking for a perfect band and sound, meanwhile suffering from life itself. Therefore the band was never coherent and consisted of many musicians, being a trio, quartet and even quintet. This album however was made in the beginning of the eighties and saw the return of earlier members, guitarst/songwriter John du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond, who was followed up by another P.H.: Preston Heyman, on some songs on bass assisted by Jonh McCoy. From the musical point I have to disagree with earlier viewers who gave a 1 star view, because to me this music is pretty good. Lifting on the the British rock boom they beefed up their sound, cranked up their instruments and amplifiers and came with some solid old and new songs, leaning more towards metal than progrock, in this

collection. There are a few reworks of already existing songs (i.e. "Devils' Answer", "Death Walks Behind You". "Tomorrow Night" and "Sleeping For Years") which are of the same quality of the originals. Furthermore there are plenty of new songs (2 of which in 2 settings, like "End Of The Day" and "Lose Your Mind") and even 5 songs which have never appeared before on any album. Crane and du Cann, whether together or seperate, prove that they were able to write fine rocksongs with a strong melody. Crane was a wellschooled keyboardsman and Du Cann a very good guitarplayer. Although most of the time without a bassplayer you hardly notice this. Anyway, to me they deserve a far better place in musical history and not only that, because a quarter of a century later I still enjoy this fine collection of songs. Nothing to be shamed for.

Atomic Rooster doesn't really feature the lengthy keyboard jams that Emerson, Lake and Palmer does. Nor do they have the same kind of intense rock style of Zeppelin or Deep Purple. What they DO have going for them, however, is something that's equally as important- quality songwriting.

While the song titles initially appear to be intimidating (like you are supposed to be scared to listen to the songs because of the words in the titles) the songs themselves are actually rather tame and really just pleasant early 70's rock.

Atomic Rooster is another unfortunate forgotten band. Time goes on, but luckily great music can remain fresh and exciting as long as you do your part and purchase the music. You should purchase this album and collect some great memories for the future.

Reason I've EVEN giving this 2-CD / 25 (not 30) track anthology a two-star rating is for the low asking price. Problem is this posting's track listing is wrong, so EITHER another label released a compilation 2-CD with the SAME exact cover and / or title OR this posting's listing of the songs is a mistake. Either way, this one is strictly for the completists.

these songs make up most of the compiliations out there and do not show the better side of this band. try the haavy soul compilation instead for a good intro to atomic rooster at its best.

American buyers beware: The version of The Devil's Answer on this compilation is the UK single version. In between the release of the UK single and the release of the US version the original vocalist left the band and so the vocal was redone (by the replacement singer, an octave higher and in a somewhat different style), and the two versions sound very different as a result. Given that there was room on this 2-CD anthology for both versions (without having to cut any other track), it's a real shame (from an American buyer's standpoint) that the US version wasn't included.

fantastic purchase.never been disappointed with a caiman purchase yet,in fact i always try to purchase from caiman first even if price slightly higher because i know i'm going to get exactly what is advertised.

The answer is: "To play in traffic, since they show in this antholgy that they sure couldn't play on stage or in the studio." This release is absolutely without justification. DO NOT BUY THIS release unless you crave wimpy, light-weight dreck.
The linernotes claims this to be A.R. during London's new wave of HEAVYMETAL (80-82), but it's much closer to the BABIES trying to play the worst, lightest-weight CHEAPTRICK at a RASPBERRIES revival, (note-This is NOT a cut at CHEAPTRICK, which had some wonderfully fun pop-rock, but they had some dreck, too). There is nothing heavymetal or hardrock about this release, unless you consider sucking a marshmallow the equiv. of crunching on a jawbreaker. 1,000,000 negative stars for dis one.

These guys suck. I used to think that any number of cheesy 80's metal bands were the inspiration for Spinal Tap, but Atomic Rooster predated them all. Don't waste your money on this garbage - if you're looking for some good, relatively obscure blues based rock, go dig up some Blue Cheer albums.