Customer Reviews

Horizontal

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ahh the early years! Still in their teens, the brothers produce beautiful song after beautiful song on their follow up to the classic Bee Gees 1st. A classic in it's own right, Horizontal is full of memorable tunes with catchy melodies,thought provoking and sometimes eccentric lyrics, and stunning musical arrangerments.
There are songs that are whimsical and humorous, and songs whose lyrics can make you cry. 'Day Time Girl' is one of the most beautiful songs the Bee Gees have ever recorded, and it's not even the best song on this disc! 'World' is out of this world,and the title cut makes one float away. There is plenty of great guitar work by Vince Melouney, bass by Mo, and vocal work which features the brothers at the top of their game.
Robin's 'And The Sun Will Shine' and 'Really And Sincerely' just tug at the heart strings. Barry and Vince team up on 'The Change is Made' to create a bluesy masterpiece.
The intentionally silly 'Harry Braf' counterbalances the many songs that are sad. 'Birdie Told Me','The Earnest Of Being George', and'Lemons Never Forget' (how's that for some original titles?) , feature the Brothers at their creative best.

Horizontal is inventive and unique, well produced and arranged, and beautifully performed. Every song is a winner, and they flow together perfectly.

It's hard to believe that Horizontal was released less than a year after 1st was released. Prolific,enthusiastic and young!, the Bee Gees demonstrated to the world talent that was undeniable. And by creating an album where the memorable 'Massachusets' is almost an afterthought, it's easy to see why the Bee Gees are truly legendary.

Horizontal absolutely must be part of any Bee Gees fan collection---- Indeed, part of any music lover's collection.

This being the Bee Gees 2nd album, they distanced themselves a bit from the previous heavy orchestration and established themselves more of a rock/pop band. Featuring the #1 UK hit "Massachusetts" and the loud, rocking "World" (UK only), this set contains everything from plaintive sad ballads to rock and roll standards. Robin's "And The Sun Will Shine" is a classic tear-jerker and reputably, recorded on the first take. "Lemons Never Forget", "The Earnest Of Being George" and "The Change Is Made" are fine examples of late sixties rock and roll. The Beatles influenced is heard on "Birdie Told Me", a bouncy McCartney-esque tune and "Day Time Girl" also falls into this category. "Really And Sincerely" is a tad too melancholy and "Harry Braff" is simply annoying. However, the album succeeds in the end and finishes with "Horizontal", a brilliantly simple song with the piano chords reading - literally - horizontally.

Wrapped in a snug fold-out digipak, this Rhino re-issue of Bee Gees Horizontal is a wonder to behold. Being the second album by the three brothers, Rhino has beautifully remastered the original into one CD that has all the original twelve songs in Stereo and Mono. These are different sounding recordings and not simply Stereo condensed into Mono. Classics like, "World" and their first #1 hit in the U.K., "Massachusetts" is given new life.

Disc 2 contains fantastic Alternate Versions and previously unreleased material. Compare "Swan Song" or "Really And Sincerely" to the original takes. Also included on album for the first time are singles, "Words", "Barker Of The UFO", "Sinking Ships" and "Sir Geoffrey Saved The World". Other new delights are the vibrant, "Out Of Line" and "Ring My Bell". Eastern influence is obvious on "Deeply, Deeply Me" and the second CD concludes with two Christmas songs, the second being a medley never before released. With 37 songs and a running time of nearly 100 minutes, this is a long awaited release. "Massachusetts" went to #11 on the Billboard Charts and #1 in the U.K. (Their first #1!). The album hit #12 in the USA! Also includes a colorful booklet packed with trivia, history, album and single photos as well as comments from Barry and Robin Gibb.

The Bee Gees 2nd album 'Horizontal' was quite an escape from the beautiful lush orchestration from the band's debut. On this album the bands sounds more like a rock group than singers with a back up band. 'Horizontal' is quite different than the 'Bee Gees 1st' it's darker and more somber than it's bright and cheery debut. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, 'Horizontal' is quite a good album and a respectable follow up to the Bees Gees strong debut.

The first gem that will probably catch your eye on this record is MASSACHUSETTS, one of The Bee Gees biggest early hits and a personal favourite of mine. The other song here that was released as a single (albeit in the UK only) was WORLD a rock song that made the group sound like the Beatles during Magical Mystery Tour. AND THE SUN WILL SHINE has become somewhat of a turntable hit over the years. This tear jerking ballad is the finest love song on the album. The late 60's hard rock sound comes out on tunes such as LEMONS NEVER FORGET, THE EARNEST OF BEING GEORGE, and THE CHANGE IS MADE. Indeed the band still sounds like The Beatles a lot on this record especially on THE BIRDIE TOLD ME and DAY TIME GIRL. Two songs that sound like something McCartney would have done. WITH THE SUN IN MY EYES is a bizarre yet beautiful love song. REALLY AND SINCERELY is a nice tune but a tad too depressing for me (also I don't think the accordian helps the song!) and HARRY BRAFF is a catchy novelty tune that can also be considered very annoying dependingon your taste. The final track HORIZONTAL is a pyschadelic retrospective tune that has some haunting piano and guitar work.

The Bee Gees 'Horizontal' was once again another success for the group. It reached #12 on the charts in the US and had a near top ten hit with MASSACHUSETTS (peaking at #11 on the singles charts). However it has always puzzled me why they never put the hit single WORDS on the album? (which was released around the same time as this record)
Adding the b-sides SIR GEOFFEREY SAVED THE WORLD, SINKING SHIPS and BARKER OF THE UFO as bonus tracks wouldn't have hurt much either. However all in all this is a pretty good album. Highly recommended!

The basic dozen of songs of the BG's 2nd LP was recorded in the second half of 1967 (soon after the BG had finished work on their debut called simply "1st") and was issued early in 1968 to enter the top 20 (US and UK) in February. The hallmark of the BG on their early albums is their incredible creativity in making memorable melodies, sung in perfect harmonies of the 3 Gibb brothers' vocals. The BG were a British pop group that certainly did not dramatically influence the quick developments of rock music of that time. On the other hand, on Horizontal, one can hear reflections of the new developments, e.g. psychedelia, r'n'b, and time-to-time, interesting sounds come from Vince Melouney's guitar. The creativity of the group between 1967 and 1971 (to Trafalgar) was really great - with the exception of the Beatles, I think only a few other groups were able to write so many tunes that you can preserve in your head at first listening. Of course, the most memorable tunes of Horizontal are the biggest hits, i.e. World, Massachusetts, and Horizontal, which regularly appear on divergent compilations. Superficially, you can take BG's music as a romantic hit pop group. However, the group has the inner power to sound very appealing, pleading and expressive.

The remaster of Horizontal is a very delightful thing. You get the whole original LP (total time 36:40 min) both in stereo and mono versions on Disc 1 (73:20 min). The sound is extremely pure and deep and thus to me much better than on the original vinyl. You can admire the outstanding orchestral arrangements which still seem to sound up-to-date. Disc 2 (34:59 min) contains additional melodies, most of them previously unissued. Among them, there are also interesting alternate versions of songs which do not appear on Horizontal (e.g. Swan Song). Some of the tracks sound as superb as those on Disc 1, but some sound inferior and flatter. In addition, Disc 2 offers also another famous BG single, Words. The 20-page booklet introduces details of each of the recordings.

Horizontal is one of the masterpieces of the first BG's era (along with Idea, 1st). Although I think that artistically, an even more interesting album is Odessa, I can recommend Horizontal to collectors, to fans of the old BG and to those, whose vinyls are getting poor - they will appreciate this luxurious reedition (and I suspect that the original 1CD recording is probably currently unavailable). The newcommers to old BG should rather buy one of the numerous greatest hit compilations.

Just liken I said above a great album by a great band. What can you say more. This album is a masterpiece. The songs that really stand out are the haunting"Lemons Never Forget" and "And The Sun Will Shine". Plus it includes "Massachusetts". What a collection!

This is an excellent example of early Bee Gee's music with some of their best songs of the 1960's. Amazon is the best place to find and buy music for the Flower Power age.

The Bee Gees have been such an awesome musical force for so many years, singing, songwriting, arranging and producing some of the most influential and important songs of the 20th century in my opinion. It's even more impressive when you realize that they were writing and performing songs as a band as early as 14 years old! Horizontal is one of three albums they would produce in a 2 year period and a wonderful continuation of the creative flow they were enjoying at that time.

The songwriting is strong and their 3 part harmonies really come through on such wonderful songs as "World" & "Massachusetts". They were such great "storytellers" and their songs seemed to be used as a platform to tell the various tales that they had conceived in their minds. This album was released right in the middle of the heyday of the "British Invasion" acts from the UK (Beatles, Stones, Who, Yardbirds, etc) and stood just as tall as any of the albums released by those bands that same year.

The Bee Gees were often compared and even mistaken for the Beatles during this period, I've always felt they stood on their own merit and wrote and produced songs that truly established them as their own outstanding band and they along with the Who are my favorite British bands. This album brings back so many memories as my generation grew up to each of these songs and I highly recommend this album to any and everyone. My Favorite song on the album is "With The Sun In My Eyes", listen to the gorgeous orchestrations and arrangements on this song and realize they were still teenagers!

This album, which came less than a year after their debut, is simply outstanding. Pay close attention also to "Daytime Girl" which shows off their great lyrical content and music composition skills. This album has everything, soft rock, hard rock, country, folk, you name it and it's here. This is an incredible album and one of my favorites of all time. It really shows the range and skills of the band and helped establish them as a major force on the music scene.

This is a very interesting collection of soft rock. Day Time Girl is such a beautiful, well crafted song. I am a Beatles fan. I heard the Bee Gees' Horizontal recently, after decades from my first listening. I found sounds there that made me think of the Beatles' Sargeant Peppers, that was years away from being created. I wonder if the Bee Gees fully explored all the possibilities they presented in Horizontal.

After their enormous success in 1967 with several big single hits and the success of their first European album, there were big expectations for their second album "Horizontal"

The album may at times come out slightly rushed with songs of uneven qualities, unlike their very consisten debut. On the other hand there is also an overall more convincing "band-feel" to the album.

The two big hits "World" and "Massachusetts" need no special mention - both being fine examples of early Bee Gees sound

Some of the ballads like "Really and Sincerely" come out too heavily orchestered with strings etc. - but there is a good handful of songs, where you get the feeling that this was really a band at this point. "The Earnest of Being George" and "Lemons Never Forget" are unusually raw for Bee Gees songs, and "Change is Made" may very well the closest the Bee Gees ever came to recording a blues. The simple arrangement for the simple melodic "Birdie Told Me" isvery nice, too.

On the second bonus CD there are some real gems too. "Barker of the UFO", "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World" and "Sinking Ships" and great examples of the often very high standards of the groups B-sides. And of course, "Words" - another big hit for the band.

Among the previously unreleased songs I really like "Out of Line" and the Christmas recordings are surprisingly good too. Another fine release, with a booklet telling part two of the band's early history - of course to be continued on "Idea"