Customer Reviews

Lake/Paradise Island

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 2fer constitutes the first and third albums by German band Lake from the late 70s. The self titled debut (first 8 cuts) was an appealing mix of West Coast trendy pop with British prog, which often sidestepped the shortfalls of both genres, and would rate four stars on its own. "Key to the Rhyme" combines a classy melody and sincere searching lyrics and is my favorite Lake tune. A close second is the epic "Between the Lines", which starts off as a dignified look back on a musical life and ends up paying tribute to the composer's many influences over the years in a most undignified but affectionate and appealing manner. "Time Bomb" is the band's best stab at a quality single, while "On the Run" and "Chasing Colours" are more complex but worth the effort. "Jesus Came Down" is a christian tune that works just fine on a secular level. Not really a week cut in the first 8. The Paradise Island portion is the reverse, a more sanitized effort lacking in the emotion, adventurousness and potency of the earlier songs, and rates two stars. Only a couple of songs shine through as worthy of their predecessors, those being "Chrystal Eyes" and "Hopeless Love". The rapid artistic decline of Lake was one of the mysteries of late 70s rock, but this CD is still worth picking up for a half dozen or so great songs that show how seemingly incompatible styles of the period could be richly blended and presented for our listening pleasure.

All the comments so far are really fair. Lake was a great and widely under-appreciated band. But, if you really want to hear Lake kick proverbial buttocks, track down their Live release. Have only located it on vinyl--double disc set. They do a sizzling version of Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way". Now THAT would be a CD treasure.

Why Lake never hit the really big time is one of the big musical mysteries of the 70's/80's. For those not familiar with the band, they stradle several genres. Firmly rooted in melodic pop-rock, a vocal quality reminiscent of the harmonies of the Little River Band, a splash of jazz and classical, a touch of art art-rock create a sound immediately familiar, yet distinctive and sophisticated for the genre. This Anglo-Scot-German group have great strength in super melodic composition, superb arranging and subtle yet technically demanding performance that frankly put most of their 70's era competition to shame. And 25 years later, the albums are still very listenable. What's nice about this CD is the two for the price of one concept; "Lake" is their self titled debut album, and "Paradise Island" is their third. There isn't a throw away track on the whole CD and any listener who likes great music from the 70's will find this an outstanding addition to their music library. Get this one while you still can.

After looking up this group here on Amazon, its nice to find that there are others who appreciate LAKE as much as I do. I have all their stuff on vinyl (I taped it on cassettes to preserve them) and still listen to them often. I'll have to pick up this two-fer! I'll have to agree with most of the previous reviews in that the debut disc LAKE is great with only one weak tune "Jesus Came Down", and seven outstanding ones. I'll give my nod to "Key to the Rhyme" as a masterpiece of a song with "Between the Lines", "Chasing Colours", and "On the Run" (which got a huge amount of airplay when it came out, on my native Cleveland OH rock stations) as also worthy cuts. The Paradise Island disc is frankly weak. Only "Paradise Way" (which I would have loved to have heard live), "Crystal Eyes" (also recieved a fair amount of airplay), and "Final Curtain" are notable songs. That being said I thought these guys were on their way to making it, as they recieved a tremendous amount of airplay. But in thinking back I can't remember having ever heard of them touring. By 1981 they put out their last disc (that I know of, at least; OUCH) and they faded away. I would recommend this two-fer as a worthwhile buy, as I have mentioned above that the music rocks!

I had the priviledge of raising eight kids in St. Louis from the late 60's to the early 80's. So, it stands to reason that I was exposed to a lot of 70's rock. I came to appreciate Santana, Elton, Kansas, The Little River Band, Jefferson Airplain/Starship, etc etc. It wasn't, however, until 2000 that I heard Lake. I was visiting my adult daughter in Charleston, and she was playing her version of nostalgia and Lake was included. WOW! I love the harmonies and especially the lyrics. Unlike a previous reviewer, my favorite is "Jesus Came Down". Not weak, but a timeless comentary on what's going on globally. Don't know if this group is still kickin', but if I ever get my act together and write a screenplay that's buzzing around in my head, Lake will be the music to underscroe the message. I'm old as dirt, but I know good music when I hear it (any genre). If anybody has the lyrics to "Jesus . . .", I'd sure like a copy. Haven't been able to track them down just yet. Love and Smiles.

Ah, Lake, one of my all time favorites. This is an excellent album. Originally not titled and only 8 songs, Paradise Island seems to be 2 albums in one. I have searched for this on CD with no avail for years, although i still have mine on vinyl with all it's ticks and pops which is common for vinyl, i can't wait to recieve it on CD, and to hear it scratch free. Thanks to Amazon.com, we can find allot of old bands on CD. I bought this for my wife for the song "Time Bomb" which I really didn't care for, boy was I ever suprised. This album blew me away! From the start, "On the Run" started it off good, then "Sorry to say" "Key to the rhyme" and the long "Between the lines" proved that this was going to be one heck of a band. As a christian, i was really impressed with "Jesus came down" I have never regreted buying this and am going to treasure it on CD. This is indeed, One Lake worth swimming in!

This is the first and third albums by one of the great lost bands of the 70's - Lake. They can probably be best described by saying if Yes and Little River Band had a baby, this is what it would sound like. Led by the powerful vocals of Englishman James Hopkins-Harrison, and the keyboard prowess of Germans Geoff Peacey and Detlef Petersen, they have written some incredible melodies that emphasize their classical training with their use of counterpoints, most notably in Chasing Colours, Jesus Came Down and Into The Night. The songs also tend to have an upbeat west-coast flavor that hides the somewhat somber lyrics of Harrison. Paradise Island was the last album by the original band, so my recommendation is to pick up this and Lake II. Everything after this is sub-par, as Ouch!, their fourth album, has missing Peacey and Petersen (the two best songwriters the band ever had) and Alex Conti, their guitar virtuoso, as all left after Paradise Island.

I don't think that Lake received a lot of US airplay when they were in their heyday, but K-SHE 95 in St. Louis played them a fair amount, and they were in concert in St. Louis in '79 or '80, I think. Germany was the home of Lake, and they were fairly popular over there.

This CD combines Lake's first commercial release in the US (Lake) with "Paradise Lake", so you really get a double-barrel shot of some of the best music that Lake produced (if you were to get "Lake 2" as well as "Ouch", you'd nicely complete all of their best stuff).

For those who are new to Lake or not sure if they have heard them or not, Lake is not to be confused with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Lake has a somewhat older Styx-like sound, combining progressive rock with bluesy classic rock. "Between The Lines" is an awesome prog-rock track, a long song with a classical instrumental interlude using guitars, keyboards and synthesizers.

If you were to get a first taste of Lake, this would be a very good pick. Some of their best music is on this double CD, and I can't think of a song I don't like out of all 16 tracks...and for a decent price!

this album never had a title,just lake and i have the album from the 70s.i love the music and still listen to it.now its available on CD.i can hardly wait to receive it..great album..

I stumbled across this 8-track in the late 70's and loved it. I have looked for it in CD since then and apparently nobody had heard of them. You need to have this in your CD collection, my personal fav is "Jesus Came Down"-- there are NO bad songs on this CD.