Customer Reviews

Metaphor

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I keep scouring the net and music stores for signs of O'Hearn's next album, just wishing for more. Metaphor continues what has been, for me, an aural love affair with O'Hearn's music. Each track stands on its own, but I prefer to listen to it in its entirety -- each piece connects with and through the others, creating something that covers the darker side of emotional terrain compared to the sunny romps of River's Gonna Rise. If you enjoyed Trust or Indigo, you will enjoy Metaphor.

I have heard that a fair number of fans are not too much into this album. That's understandable because on Metaphor, O'Hearn goes further away from the electronic space sounds of his first two albums and into more acoustic instruments giving his 90s works a more of a medievel & tribal sound. This CD is his most obscure and least accessable album that he's ever put out. While I respect that a fair number of people don't like this album at all I have to disagree with them saying that it's a mediocre album. On the contrary, it's actually a beautiful album. It just isn't as easy to get into as alot of his other works.

The leadoff track Patience My Friend is probably the song that has the most of his more trademark sound with electronic keyboards and blipping sound effects but overall it's a very medievel sounding track. The Dividing Line is far more tribal with strong acoustic guitar strings and tribal beats. Peace Be With You is a gorgeous jazzier track with a much stronger Native American flavor and jazzy basslines. This one is probably the brightest song on this CD. The Women Of Lachaise has more of a sound that is more in the field of 3 Circles with similar sounding drums but where 3 Circles has a spacier sound Lachaise on the other is very tribal sounding. Drive is by far my favorite song on this entire album. It starts off with echoing sound effects and then turns into a strongly ambient groove with heavy bobbling basslines, tribal drums, & mezmerizing echoing pianos. Let Truth is another track that is more in the vein of his earlier Ancient Dreams-esqe sounds but even this one has a strongly medievel sound to it. Images In Stone is a dark haunting track with little rhythm. Instead there are haunting, ominous ambient crescendos throughout the song. All Quiet Now is a very mournful song with a Native American flavor and lots of tribal drums. This is one to play on a dark cloudy evening. The final track Faith & Endurance is a bizarre track that has strange guitars and fast paced beats giving the song a more intense feel. The loud clang at the ending brings Metaphor to a close.

This CD is by far the least accessable album he's ever put out. It's kind of a shame that it would be five years before another album would follow but 2001s So Flows The Current though was worth it.

This CD is strongly recommended. :)

This CD is by far the best of Patrick O'Hearn. It is exquisite and filled with emotions and stories from the days of old. I feel that each song touches me in a very personal way.

When I listen to this CD, I like to sit in the dark and burn a candle and let the moods become a part of me.

It is well worth the listen.

Patrick O'Hearns best. When you first get a Patrick album, the songs sound nice, but you don't love them immediately. You have to listen to each album every day for 2 weeks to fall in love with a few of the songs. I would call the style "Experimental Jazz-based New Age." Similar to Tangerine Dream, but the sounds here are not so exotic. The whole album is great; the tracks "Faith and Endurance," "Let Truth Prevail," and "Crossing the Divide" are masterpieces. Each exhibits his unique genius at playing the melodic line of a song super-slowly. (Taking many measures per note.) The second also has a wonderful experiment in playing the melodic line on a piano with one finger. I can't imagine how he made it so great! His 2 other great albums are Indigo, and Eldorado. If you love this album, try some Tangerine Dream! (I can't imagine why people call this music "dark"? -- It's very peaceful!)

I own over three hundred CD's that range from Jazz, Pop, Prog Rock to Classical and New Age. I listen to Patrick O'Hearn MORE than any other artist's work I own. That being said, METAPHOR is by far his best. This man's work sounds deceptively simple. It IS a good idea to turn down the lights and let yourself explore the meticulous layering of sounds O'Hearn blends together. He is a master of the bass guitar who played on the cutting edge of New Wave in the early eighties with Missing Persons. What you find in METAPHOR (and TRUST) are pleasing cameos by former band-mates Terry Bozzio and Warren Cuccurulo as well as ambient guitarist David Torn. The result is a sensual and emotionally compelling voyage that combines the best of deep rythmic grooves, ethereal synth, acoustic and electric guitar. This disc is a feast for the creative mind that truly deserves SIX stars!

I've read alot about "arrangements" and "dancing in dew covered fields" and such, but I haven't seen anything about "feeling". I bought this cd because I remembered POH's name being mentioned on a new age station I listened to long ago. Chattahoochee Field Day was one of those songs back then so I expected something great and was in no way disappointed!

From the first song to the last, it felt like he was trying to say something, relay a message...it was something you had to find on your own but there was only one meaning, not an individual interpretation.

The first clue to this meaning was the cover - the statue that is worn away in sadness - I had no idea at the time where that statue was or what it meant. But the image (images including inside pamphlet) and the music was haunting. One passage in particular, The Women of Lachaise, kept at me until I wrote out the feeling of the song into a poem. I thought that was the end of it but it still kept at me.

Taking to the net, I did research on the name in the title and found Pere Lachaise...a cemetary of great history and amazing art in the form of mourning souls. Now people may find this morbid, however I feel it is a message saying transition is nothing to be afraid of. Once I finished my research and found the whole story, the haunting let me go. I still love LOVE this cd and if I were stranded on a desert island with only one cd and a lifetime of batteries for a player, Metaphor would be it.

These are all opinions here - the others are as valid as mine and vice-versa. The only REAL way for you to judge is to listen for yourself. But if you do, make sure you listen with your soul and not just your ears.

Much love...BlueEnBlue

The reason I say "not top-rate" instead of "mediocre" or "uninspired" is because Metaphor actually is a good album. It's just that, when compared to other O'Hearn releases, this doesn't seem to stack up. The big change in this album (compared to other albums by Patrick) is the shift towards acoustic instruments (though there is still plenty of synth). While that is not bad in of itself, the composisitons have gone down a notch in complexity. Also, a couple of the songs tend to repeat themselves for the majority of the track. Again, not a bad thing in of itself, but it doesn't seem to work here.

My favorite tracks on the album are: Patience My Friend, Crossing The Divide, The Women of Lachaise, Drive, Let Truth Prevail, and Faith and Endurance. Those 6 tracks are excellent, but the other 3, I feel, bring the album down considerably.

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of this CD which was negative and unfair. After giving this CD some undivided listening time I found it to be excellent, particularly "Crossing the Divide". My apologies to Mr. O'Hearn. I ordered the "Trust" cd today.

For those of you familiar w/ PO's work you'll find this to be a slight change of direction. This album finds Patrick using more acoustic instrumentation lending itself to a more tribal sound. There's no getting away from PO's signature arrangements and developments but the use of large skinned drums certainly gives you that Native American flavor. Patrick's previous work sounds much more atmospheric. This work finds itself grounded in a natural earthly meditational state as apposed to the ambient celestial stratosphere. But this is not a bad thing, it's just a subtle shift. Metaphor does not play through as well as some of his other works either, like Indigo & River's Gonna Rise. Those two discs are fantastic, beginning to end, especially RGR. Metaphor has a few pieces in there that I tend to skip over, kinda uneventful slow movers that never quite develop. You just keep waiting for some development....and nothin'. All in all, I really like about 5 of the tracks. Of course, recording and production are tremendous as usual for Mr. O'Hearn. If you're already a fan, you'll certainly want to add this one to your collection. If you're not, get River's Gonna Rise, Eldorado, Indigo & Trust then Metaphor.

It does not take a genius or a hard-core fan of POH to notice the decay of his ability to compose classical-rate pieces. It started with the CD TRUST as one feels and sees POH's gloomy vision of this planet and its human cargo. "Trust" had a message imbedded in it and it is an honest and profound message for mankind of what is to come to this planet. Metaphor on the other hand lacks a message or a theme and in my opinion reflects POH's lack of exuberance towards life or music, ergo, the music in Metaphor is a stew of sound going nowhere. Yes, there are a few short catchy melodic bars but the melodic flow of each piece stagnates like a broken record repeating over and over and it gets boring. The musical soundscape of Metaphor is 2 dimensional compared to POH's previous works that are vividly more 3 dimensional in musical and sound layering.

I don't know, but based on Metaphor, POH's musical well is starting to dry up. It is not a bad thing, we all go thru the same thing. It is part of being human...so did Mozart, Bethoven,Dvorak......