Customer Reviews

The Original Soundtrack

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm almost 50 and I still haven't heard many albums better than this one. 10cc in their heyday were unsurpassed in creative, experimental rock songwriting. The beauty of their vocals, the skill of their musicianship, the wry of their wit, the edge of their rock, the sadness of their melancholy, the adventure of their extended theatrical pieces, all add up to some pure creative musical genius. And The Original Sountrack exemplifies this more than anything else they've done.

I really can't even consider 10cc the same band after Lol Creme and Kevin Godley left, when they devolved into a "clever" Top 40 pop band. One listen to L or Freeze Frame and you'll see what I'm talking about. Those two put the art into art rock. Gouldman and Stewart were both talented songwriters in their own right, but Godley/Creme made 10cc the unique band that they were.

How Dare You is a fine follow-up to this CD, but I always felt it a bit too slick, not as daring or unpredictable, and not even close to approaching the seering rock of "Second Sitting for the Last Supper" or the brash whimsy of "Une Nuit a Paris."

Sadly, no one has supplanted 10cc in the past 20 years. I still go back to The Original Soundtrack when I want to hear something original, and it still gets my blood pumping, after all these years.

If you have to start somewhere with 10cc, start with SHEET MUSIC (1974). This is arguably one of the best albums of the 70's, and certainly was a major influence on things to come in the 80's. Why SHEET MUSIC has never been elevated to the status it should have been is not a mystery. Sometimes bands are too good for their own good. Me? I think this is inspirational and would be a damn far sight better than most of the stuff you've listened to over and over again, and told is "classic". 10cc innovated, renovated and elevated pop rock music to new standards, and were definitely the most influential British band of the 7o's.

Your second stop on the 10cc highway/motorway should be this album, The Original Soundtrack. Some argue it's better than SHEET MUSIC, some say it's not. Either and or, you get incredibly well written songs, emmaculate production, two of the best singers Britain has had to offer, and a band that was in complete control of their musical output. You get songs about French prostitutes, Drug dealers, Blackmailers, Minestrone, Messiahs, and so much more. These 4 guys (Eric Stewart, Lol Creme, Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman) had wit, smarts, talent and the ability to pull it all off. Every track is different from the last and you will not be bored.

They beat Queen to the opera, and like it's been said previously, with alot more humour and fun, but with technical brilliance. There are moments on this album that are musically beautiful, like the introduction of "Brand New Day", or "Flying Junk".
And even though it's been played to death, "I'm Not In Love" was truly a one of a kind song. No one up until 1975 had ever heard anything like that, and no one had employed such techniques to record anything like it. Now you can do it with synthesizers, but it's the sound of it that inspired so many Emulators and Synclaviers in the 80's to achieve it's etherealness. And that the message of the song is one of total denial of being in love at all, sarcasm bared, not many people got the joke. Like The Police's "Every Breath You Take", it's not really a love song. It's about someone who has some "funny" ideas in their head that they think is love.
The Original Soundtrack, your second stop on the 10cc road.

I don't say this about too many albums, but this is undoubtedly a seminal work by one of the most creative rock groups from the 1970's. This was recorded at the writing and songwriting peak of the team of British duo Godley and Creme. Why buy this, you say? The answer is the MUSIC, of course! This was their Everest, without a doubt, before their well-documented sad self-implosion after the release of their next album only a year later, "How Dare You."

Now for the music:

"One Nuit In Paris," is as strange as it is brilliant. I am DREAMING of the day when someone makes a long-form music video out of this. The entire story is told in three very unusual vignettes, but you think you'd been there all night yourself - and maybe you wished you were there with them...

"I'm Not In Love" is as bittersweet and beautiful as any song's potential can get to evoke those memories best left in the attic of one's broken heart. With this one song they captured the quiet confusion, frustration and anger of being alone, and it can be played 50 years from now and will still have that arrow to the heart honesty.

"Blackmail," is a brilliant example of how fame, sex and especially the delicately balanced trust of others who hold your fame in their hands can be tipped over for greed.

"The Second Sitting For The Last Supper" is a cool rocker that inflicts both guilt and freedom at the same time.

"Brand New Day" slows the album down a bit, and is the most 70's sounding song, but it works - and it's the most Queen-sounding for it's time, but then again, maybe Queen "borrowed" that 3 part harmony in "Bohemian Rhapsody" from 10CC? Listen for yourself...

"Flying Junk" is a short song that leaps right out of the box swinging, and reminds you that the bad men still exist, and apparently they live pretty well!

"Life Is A Minestrone" is so full of wonderful nonsense that it makes you wish it was you sipping tea with Minnie Mouse at the Taj Mahal by the end of it.

The last song, "The Film Of My Love," is a bit sappy and a little goofy, but it reminds me so much of what Monty Python might have been if they wrote music at the time - it's absurdist, sincere in it's fantasy, and this could have been played as part of the soundtrack in one of their movies.

(For the recent remaster, they have included two bonus tracks - "Channel Swimmer," an odd almost Beatle-like ditty that was the B-side single to "I'm Not In Love," and the last song is "Good News," another B-side, which is very very odd, and light and airy.)

I give the music, import packaging (which includes liner notes and lyrics!) a 100% 5-star review. Go out and get this as soon as possible, you'll be glad you did!

PLEASE NOTE: There are several versions of 10CC:TOS out there, BEWARE of BOTH of the early Mercury versions of this album on CD, they are mixed WRONG nd the results are awful! Luckily for me I own the 1998 MFSL Gold disc, and together with the remaster you will have a lot of original cover art, additional info + of course lyrics and the additional tracks.

In summation, you can apply any of these songs to anything, and it pretty much works. 10cc was a legendary creative force of the early 70's, and this album cements it - this is their cornerstone work. I have loved this album since I first heard it on a scratchy 33 1/3 record back in late 1978 or 79, and have never stopped listening to it since. As a whole it inspires, makes me reminisce, and most of all I can toe-tap along to their dry wit, their humor, and their style.

Yes, this album has STYLE!

Thanks for reading and please check out my other reviews online!

The best of their early albums with Godley and Creme with not one bad song or bad idea.

Starts strong with Une Unit A Paris, a strange tale of love and murder in paris. It's epic, mostly piano, bass, organ, and various percussion instruments: the liner notes says Eric plays steel guitar, but I can't hear any. Very good, sets the stage perfectly for what's ahead.

I'm Not In Love. The Hit The Song The Reason 10cc Could Make Albums After Their Albums Didn't Sell Much Any More. Hard to explain: layers of labored over vocal harmonies soar in and out of the stratosphere of the song, while an accoustic guitar keeps the rhytmn, the electric piano plays the harmony, a bass drum helps keep rhytmn, and Eric croons over the top the way only he can about how he's Not In Love even though it's obvious he is heh heh heh.

Blackmail is a very strong rocker with some AMAZING steel guitar work from Eric. Those solo's are the end are ferious and worth the price of the album alone. This song also features tons of arrangement ideas, and strange instrumentation.

Second Sitting For The Last Supper. This is the type of song I love. There are so many ideas packed into this song. It's about 4-5 minutes long, and there are over 8 musical ideas. It's all coherent too. It rocks, it rolls, it croons, it moons, it's sacreligious wooooooo! some might say too much is happening but it's done in such a logical way that it proves the band's genius.

Brand New Day. One of those heart breaking ballads Godley and Creme did so well. Not their best, but with plenty of great ideas and music, this one is still great.

Flying Junk is a strange song. It doesn't rock, it doesn't ballad. It's pretty experimental: I can't say WHAT the main musical instruments are. A very weird song.

Life Is A Minestrone is kind of like the band's M.O. The song rocks, and it has weird arrangment ideas, is layered, and humours with a catchy chorus.

The Film Of My Love is a strange ballad that seems to be suggesting the singer is making a porno. (!!!!!!!) Still, tons and tons of amazing music ideas going on.

If the band had done just this one album, they would be considered amazing. However, nobody ever considers them at all! Their obscurity is a crime. Buy this album and understand what music in the hands of creative people can be.

Like their UK counterparts Roxy Music, 10cc (who, by the way, sound nothing like Roxy)created music that showed passion, insight, intelligence and wit. Their best albums (Sheet Music, Original Soundtrack, How Dare You! and Deceptive Bends) bring together the very best that music had to offer in the 70's.

The mini rock opera that opens the album has enough hooks for 5 hit records. While Queen stole the 10cc's thunder with a mini rock opera of their own, 10cc's is both wittier and is closer in spirit to the Who's A Quick One While He's Away. I'm Not In Love became the band's biggest hit single. It's a great song full of rich ironic moments and full of astounding production touches by the band. Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman pack this 4 minute song with enough melody, lyrical insight and regret to almost make this a mini rock opera as well.

The stand out tracks though are Life is a Minestrone and The Second Setting for the Last Supper. The former acts as a delightful parody of singer-songwriter cliches and still manages to work as a song outside of that context. The latter is a hard hitting rocker that captures all the contradictions of Christianity in under 5 minutes.

The bonus tracks are witty but its very clear why they were b sides originally. Both could have been stand out tracks on the band's first album, but within the company of these songs are weak. Still, each has its moments.

Although 1977's "Deceptive Bends" is my favorite 10cc album, this 1975 release has grown on me over the years. Although the silly and over-long "Une Nuit a Paris" begins to sink the album before it even begins to sail, the second track (and BIG chart-topper) "I'm Not in Love" immediately puts it back on course. Musically the album gets stronger from that point on. In addition, "Blackmail", "The Second Sitting of the Last Supper" and "Life is a Minestrone" are especially strong tunes for their humor, sarcasm, irony and harmony, the latter always having struck me as the immediately recognizable and characteristic sound of 10cc. The play on the album's title (and the film metaphor visuals on the album sleeve) wraps up the group's humor succintly (it wasn't an actual soundtrack to any film at all). This 1975 album, along with the following year's "How Dare You!" finds the band at its peak, with Kevin Godley and Lol Creme as strong forces, giving the band a rich sound with tunes that sometimes sound much like Queen, one of many competing bands for frequent radio play. And thanks also to Eric Stewart's smooth vocals, "The Original Soundtrack" finds the band quite confident in their appeal and humor with their ability to juxtapose the silly with the serious (i.e. "Blackmail" versus "Flying Junk"). However, introductees to 10cc might best begin with 1974's "Sheet Music", which provides a somewhat lighter listen. Strongly recommended to anyone interested in knowing more about some of the best music of the 1970s.

I became a big fan of 10cc when I first heard Wall Street Shuffle from their previous LP Sheet Music. I recently bought these digitally remasterd CD's of The Original Soundtrack and How Dare You.
The sound quality is superb, but that was expected. The bass and drums in particular are more up front and some of the guitar parts are clearer. However, the packaging leaves alot to be deired. They didn't bother to reproduce the inside gatefold covers of the original albums and no extra photos of the band members are included. Worst of all, they did not include the lyrics either. Which in my opinion is the crux of 10cc's appeal. How can you discuss their wit and humour and not include the lyrics. For shame! Graham Gouldman does give a brief description of the songs and how lead singers were determined, but other than that, the booklet is worthless. If you bought the original CD's on Mercury, you can give the old discs away, but hold on to those booklets. At least they have the lyrics in-tact.

I was in the US Navy bootcamp when "I'm Not In Love" hit the airwaves
32 years ago. The haunting beat still sounds like a heart. A classic song that was over played yet when I hear it remains a classic. I saw the band with 10 Years After (with Alvin Lee) before the hit was made. The Original Soundtrack was exactly as titled when released. ORIGINAL. Highly recommend the cd. When she said "big boys don't cry"...it was during a quadrophonic phase on radio and I thought they were doing a radio promo for "request in quad". Always interesting when you think a song is saying one thing and the lyrics turn out something else.

You know what??? In their prime ('72 - '78....argueably...) they were one great band. I actually bought this upon it's release when I was twelve on the strength of the magnificent single "I'm Not In Love". Although the editing on the single version was awful. This song had it all, and meant everything to a twelve year old boy. Now, most people relegate it to your typical 70's Time/Life compilations. But what about the rest of the album you say??? At a time when pomp rock was at it's height, this set knocked down the walls. Just listen to the oft ignored "Flying Junk Man", a song about a local drug pusher. Anyone reading this that already owns it knows what I'm saying. If you do like this and don't have their first 2 cd's, get them as well. Sheet Music is a classic all it's own.

FM rock in 1975, was my favorite year for FM rock. Probably because it was all new and fresh for me. I was just starting to break away from AM pop radio stations, and then I discovered all the stereophonic was of sound coming from various styles ofprogressive and album rock.

I heard "I'm Not in Love" on the pop radio, but, later in the year when I heard it in stereo, and being about 6 minutes long, I knew I had to run out and buy this album. Because, also on FM rock radio, they played 10cc's "Life is a Minestrone." I loved this album and played it to death (vinyl LP's can get overwhelmingly crackly if you're just a teenager who didn't know how to be more careful with precious vinyl LP's), anyway I always kept the album, but was always buying new LP's and playing what was new in my record collection.

It's been more than 30 years since I've heard this album, and I didn't see this album of "The Original Soundtrack" at my local Best Buy store, but I did see the CD of "The Very Best of 10cc". It didn't have many of the songs from "The Original Soundtrack" (only two), but, it does have "The Things We Do For Love", "Art For Art's Sake", and "I'm Mandy, Fly Me", which I do remember from my teenage days of high school and FM rock in Detroit. Plus, "The Very Best of 10cc" also had "Cry" from Godley and Creme (from 1985) as a closing track in the collection. This is great, because in the 1990's, I couldn't find "Cry" anywhere, and I loved that song.

Before Godley and Creme formed 10cc, they were also known as Hotlegs, where in 1970 they did a Top 40 hit called "Neanderthal Man", with members of the former British Invasion group Wayne Montana and the Mindbenders.

So I believe that Godley & Creme, and 10cc were very underrated for what they've achieved over the past 40 years. I suppose I should order this CD of "The Original Soundtrack" because, I realize now, that I do want more of 10cc's music again.