Customer Reviews

Modern Times

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is sandwiched between the heavy historical content of "Past, Present and Future" and the more pop content of "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages". Songs like "Carol" and "Apple Cider Reconstitution" could have been big hits but Stewart just wasn't that well known yet. This is an excellent album with a preview of the hits to come as well as a nod to his past. It's taken a long time for this to reach CD but this is definitely one of his best. There are 3 bonus tracks on the Cd that are good also.

This is im my mind the best album Al Stewart recorded. My favorite, as I wore it out on the album was "What's Going On", but the whole album is great and it flows. Whoever decided on which tracks should go together was a mixdown genious. When I fist heard this album I was working as a DJ in the American Forces Radio And Television Service. This fit in nicely with jazz, soft rock or AOR (Album Oriented Rock) which was the Rock format of the time. Righteous CD. Glad they re-released it! Can't believe "What's Going On" was never released on a Best Of CD. But then again this was early in Al's career!

Modern Times is an album that sounds just as good in 2004 as it did when I first got it in 1975. Every song tells an indepth story that seems so familiar to me (and probably most people). Who hasn't experienced the sadness of "Not the One"? Can you look back to your teenage/young adult years and not be touch by "Modern Times"? Don't we all know a "Carol" from somewhere?

Modern Times, looking at it historically, was the major battle just before the pinnacle (Year of the Cat and Time Passages). it is the album that every thought was Al's best up to the moment. But no one at that time ever foresaw the popularity right around the corner with his next two albums.

I guess I was a victim of circumstance (as are we all) when I bought the LP. All my friends and relatives have gotten the LP/Cassette/or CD as a gift from one time or other. They too sing the praises of this most wonderful album.

I heard Stewart on a trip to Spain in 1975, two years before his year of the cat made him famous. I can well remember the incredible beautiful spanish cover of this record, a car, a woman, a man, a mansion on a sunset (or sundown). Pity they didnt use that marvelous cover for this cd. Still, Stewart is at his best here and his songs grow well, like wine, they even sound more timeless today than ever. Great guitar playing and a more rocking cd than those that preceeded this one, a step before the more MOR Year of the cat. Still folk, but rather folk rock. The 3 extra tracks have two interresting tracks, but you can well understand that they are inferior to those on the cd and why they didnt make it to the original releases. I find hard to understand why the song "News from Spain" from Orange is here. It's almost the same version than the one in Orange, just 40 seconds shorter. I guess that if you buy this cd and not not Orange, you'll have this great song too. The linner notes are informative, but they dont give a hint about the bonus tracks and their history.

I have reviewed other Al Stewart albums so if my appraisal looks familiar, it may be. The fact is that I like Al Stewart's music a great deal. This may be my single favorite album, not just Al Stewart album. The old "if you were stuck on a desert isle" type thing.

Well, I had a house fire a few years ago. The first CD that I re-bought was "Modern Times" (the second was "Argus" by Wishbone Ash if you're curious.)

My best friend from college introduced me to this album. Somehow, as I listened to the title cut, I felt that I was listening to a story about Bill and me. We have not seen each other since college. The song was very much about us.

"Carol" is a great lilting song about a "cocaine holiday." The lyrics, as with a number of Al's songs, contrast so much with the music that half the time it's almost cynical in itself.

"Apple Cider Reconstituted" is a great song about a railway station falling in disrepair, again with a top 40ish musical accompaniment. It's truly a wonderfully written song.

"What's Going On?" is a song that reflects the confusion of growing up.

The other songs are just as strong lyrically and musically. If you appreciate great music, I strongly suggest this CD.

Do yourself a favour Al Stewart fans, if you don't have this album buy it now. This is a superb album from Al, possibly his best (though I also love Past, Present and Future and Orange). The writing, production and musicianship is great, every song is good. This one is for Stewart fans who fall into the category of thinking everything Al did prior to Year of the Cat was great and everything after sucked because he went from serious songwriter to going for the bubblegum, meaningless pop hit(yes I am in that category).

From beginning to end, this album is great. Al has finally holstered the power of great imagery as heard on "The Dark & The Rolling Sea". If you've only been a YEAR OF THE CAT or BEST OF listener, you will thoroughly love this as it has that YOTC feel because of producer Alan Parsons. Standout songs: "The Dark And The Rolling Sea", "What's Going On?" and "Not The One".

Although "Year of the Cat" was certainly his career high-point commercially, it's this album that perfectly encapsulated his strengths and appeal. With his usual wordy, associative lyrics on display, the Alan Parsons production and fine studio musician backing (especially Tim Renwick's incendiary guitar solo on the title track...wow!)provide Stewart with truly sympathetic sonic backgrounds. "Apple Cider Reconstitution," the Vonnegut homage "Sirens of Titan," "Dark and Rolling Sea," and "Modern Times" are the stand-outs. Well worth revisiting on this re-mastered cd. This is the kind of music they don't make anymore.

Ah, the Dr. Strange-in-the-background cover restored at last!

The reference is more than half serious, because that cover sums up the times & tone of this album, especially in the elegiac title track. Quite a few songs from the beginning of the 1970s had that "end of an era" flavor, a sense of summer flowers faded & a weary, wary, even bitter autumn coming on soon. And Al Stewart's albums at the time, with their awareness of history & the passing of years, really captured that feeling.

And yet, if it's specifically shaped by the end of the 1960s, it's also a timeless album. Who hasn't reached a point of looking back in reflection & bewilderment, wondering when you lost track of old friends, old dreams, old ideals? How strange that in my early 20s, childhood already seemed so distant; now, more than 35 years later, those memories seem both embarrassingly naive & frighteningly prescient.

That's the beauty & power of these songs. They not only go deeper than run-of-the-mill pop songs (although a couple here could easily have been top 40 hits), they encourage the listener to pause for reflection, to examine one's own life a little more. You immediately feel that you're hearing someone who understands your secret, inner life -- he's obviously felt & gone through a lot of the same things you have, and knows how to express them.

Whether you're discovering Al Stewart for the first time, or rediscovering him after too many years away, you can't do much better than this album. It isn't as well-known as "Year of the Cat" or "Time Passages," but I think that's to its advantage now, in that it won't seem as timebound by the hit songs we've all heard over & over again. Highly recommended!

Al Stewart may very well have the best voice i have ever heard. He shows it well on this album that has 8 absolute classics as well as 3 new ones on the remastered version. He can sing about anything and make it sound remarkable such as upbeat fun songs such as Apple Cider or dark eerie songs like the Dark and the Rolling Sea. I have yet to find anybody make me feel the way I feel when listening to Al. It is an outstanding experience and i strongly urge you to buy this. My favorite songs are Carol, What's Going On?, Apple Cider, The Dark and the Rolling Sea & Modern Times.