Customer Reviews

Nightwatch

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

 

 

Cleaning out my cassette collection I found this old favorite. I listened to it and felt deep emotions and a great uplifting. The music is masterful, inspired, and filled with joy. The words are simple but they are true. In Whenever I call you Friend (Stevie Nicks is super)- "In every moment there's a reason to carry on" -- "Sweet love's showin' us a heavenly light, never seen such a beautiful sight." In Wait a Little While -"Wait a little while to welcome what you're after; Give it the time to find its way to you
And soon as you no longer try, you'll turn and find it standing by your side - Come and get it, when you let it, it'll come to you."

I have to admit that I got this album mostly for "Whenever I Call You Friend" which is a track I enjoy a great deal and so I was a little surprised at the other tracks on this album as well. Prior to my getting this album my idea of Kenny Loggins was as an average rocker who contributes the ersatz pop rock track for movie soundtrack albums e.g. "Footloose", "I'm Alright" etc which I don't rate as much more than forgettable ear candy although I do like "Whenever ..." a great deal. The rest of "Nightwatch" was a little of a pleasant surprise as for the first time I've now heard a different side of Loggins. Most of the tracks here have some depth and with the jazz influences actually reminded me a lot of Gino Vannelli's work on "Brother To Brother" although to be fair Vannelli's work on that album is still far superior to this one and yet it made me appreciate Loggins more than before. The original version of "What A Fool Believes" before it was covered by The Doobie Brothers is also here and truth be told, although it is not as polished production-wise as the Doobie Brothers' version with the Michael McDonald vocal harmonies I actually prefer this the Loggins' version of the track. Overall the album has a nice flow to it and is definitely more than just those 2 tracks. The mlps design itself though is a disappointment because it hasn't been assembled as well as the many other mlps releases that I've seen out there being made up of cheap, thin cardboard that looks like it will come apart soon once the glue gets old. The sound quality though is pretty good and somewhat makes up for the disappointing mlps design and assembly. Also included is a 20-page booklet with all the lyrics in both English and Japanese.

Kenny Loggins has had a lustrous, if somewhat up and down, musical career. This 1987 release is one of his most interesting, as it explores so many different types of music. Kenny in those days was known for what he called "mini-movies" songs. Lengthy tunes that showcased not only his vocal prowess, but his wonderful arranger's imagination. This album contains two of his best: "Nightwatch," a haunting, moody song, enhanced by his good friend Michael McDonald's backup vocals; and "Angelique," a soaring and wistful mini-opera, with a great instrumental interlude. The album also includes his version of the Doobie Brothers' smash "What a Fool Believes." While the Doobies version is probably better in the long run, Kenny does a creditable version. The album's big single, "Whenever I Call You Friend", his hit duet with Stevie Nicks, is a fun romp. Kenny also does a great cover of "Down in the Boondocks." All in all, you can forgive him for the two clunkers, "Down 'n' Dirty" and "Somebody Knows." Kenny is a great addition to any music lover's collection.

Kenny Loggins remainas my favorite all-time male singer. Though not my favorite Kenny Loggins album, Nightwatch packs some very interesting and fine selection of songs. "Wait A Litte While", is a very, very good song, and together with "Heart To Heart", "Danny's Song" and "Return To Pooh Corner" are my all-time favorite Loggins songs. Kenny's version of the Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes" isn't bad at all, giving it a different spice and flavor. The voice of Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald really blends well together "Whenever I Call You Friend", his duet with Stevie Nicks was a big hit in the Philippines. So this album is quite an essential part of my Kenny Loggins CD collection.

Kenny Loggins' debut solo release Celebrate Me Home was such a soulful,jazzy affair that it must have been a bit of a hard act to follow up on. I imagine with the idea of playing it safe in terms of recognition he again enlisted Bob James to produce this album. Either way you cut it this album could'nt be any more different and unique from Kenny's first album than one could possibly imagine. The wispy breeziness of the previous album is replaced by not only a musical but a production sound thats a lot more varied and diverse in flavor and isn't quite as easy to pinpoint as you might think. It isn't exactly jazz fusion or folk/rock but at the same time it isn't entirely Westcoast AOR either. The title song is an elongated jazzy pieces where spacy electric keyboards and bass lines all play in the same river over Kenny's scaling vocal licks all around. It's moody atmosphere certainly suggests the same idea as the title implies. This album also includes more stronger rock and blues elements,especially on the more tough rocking "Easy Driver" and "Down N' Dirty" that features rougher guitars,blues harp and gritty vocals from Loggins than even his rocker songs of the past suggest. In his cover of "Down In The Boondocks" Loggins adds a strong New Orleans styled funk groove to the occasion and it winds up being a great match for an already well written song. Hearing the somewhat radio worn "Whenever I Call You "Friend" helps me to realize how wonderfully multi sectioned this song is and how each section kind of indicates a progression of genre-from jazzy R&B to AOR pop and back again in the change of a chord. "Wait A Little While" and "Somebody Knows" both take on the same approch of multi part little pop songs. Kenny's version of "What A Fool Believes" actually differs musically from the Doobie's more rhythmically consistant version with more of an obvious jazzy approch and rhythmic variations. The final song "Angelique" takes a cue from the moodiness of the title track to create a bass/keyboard driven and mildy operatic mini rock/jazz/soul/pop symphony. This is an album that presents not only a different sound from the debut but a feeling as well: a different Kenny Loggins. And that he had more to say after this really says a lot for this albums place in his long and varied musical history.

Kenny Loggins was hot property in 1978 when this album was released. By the end of his stint with Loggins and Messina, he'd forged a considerable reputation as a songwriter and singer and the duo's 7 albums had sold very well. 1977's solo outing 'Celebrate me Home' (itself a million seller) was a fabulous album with interesting themes, great melodies and a terrific production. Therefore it's follow up was highly anticipated and lead up single 'Whenever I call you friend' (a duo with Stevie Nicks) did nothing to quell this anticipation, being a well constructed hook laden number.
Unfortunate it was then that Nightwatch failed to live up to expectations.
There were in fact some terrific songs. 'Wait a little while' is superb, very evocative and as good as anything on 'Celebrate me Home'. In addition, Loggins had co written 'What a fool believes' with Micheal McDonald (later a huge hit for the Doobie brothers) and Loggin's version was very good as well. Beyond that though things weren't so good. The problem was that Loggins was now being pushed as a rock singer and the songs served up to fulfill this purpose were unconvincing. 'Easy driver', 'Down'n'dirty', and 'Down in the Boondocks' are all packed onto the old side one and might be vaguely foot stomping but are ultimately rather vacuous. The second half of the CD is more like the production of 'Celebrate me home' but lacks the charm and sophistocation of that record (apart from the magnificent 'Wait a little while'). There was enough history there however to make the next record 'Keep the fire' an automatic buy but if anything it was a further deterioration. Finally then, to get to the nuts and bolts - this CD is of the AOR/West coast genre, not dissimilar to the productions of Dan Fogelberg and Micheal McDonald era Doobie brothers. It's not the place to start on a foray into Kenny Loggin's music. A compilation would be a better place to start but in my opinion 'Celebrate me Home' and two albums with Jim Messina (Mother Lode and Full Sail) are ESSENTIAL West Coast albums. Buy those now and leave Nightwatch for later.

It's always a pleasure to do business with sellers who sell used cd's in almost new condition. I'm a satisfied buyer.