Customer Reviews

Secret Story

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't think that analogy is entirely accurate, but it's the closest one I can think of. Secret Story is an epic, a wide-reaching work of vast scope and limitless imagination. I realize I sound like some cheap PR man writing that, but I find it hard to convey the sheer magnificence of this music in simple terms. This is an album that's taken me four years to appreciate - since I'd been familiar with the more pedestrian (if such a term can even be applied to Metheny) Offramp and its like, I was unprepared for the grand symphonic bent of Secret Story. It's rooted in jazz, but just calling it jazz would be like calling Da Vinci a simple painter. Pat's keyboards and his trademark guitar tone are joined by the London Symphony and an occasional choir in a blend of styles that spans the globe. Its overall tone is almost new-agey, but it stretches so far beyond generic new age music as to make the term meaningless.

Pat's compositional skills are on display just as much as his phenomenal guitar work. "Facing West" soars above a vast landscape of lush green forests. "Finding and Believing" is Oriental funk, if such a thing even exists. A dreamy piano drifts through "The Longest Summer," painting pictures of blue cloudless skies. "See the World," the most similar to the songs on Pat's other albums, could have come straight from Offramp or Travels. I won't stretch this out by going track-by-track, but every piece here creates its own individual exotic atmosphere while contributing a vital part of the grand whole. Even 76 minutes seems like a short running time, considering just how much is packed into this little piece of plastic.

If you're not turned off by the description of new-age classical world-beat jazz (and you're prepared to give it a good while to grow on you), you'll find more feeling and depth to this album than I can sum up in words. It stands alone in the Metheny catalogue and in the world of jazz itself. This can be unassuming background wallpaper if you need to relax, or it can captivate your senses if you give it your full attention. It's sonic poetry of the highest order. Take a listen and hear what you've been missing.

Metheny's way of playing on this album might not seem exceptionally significant to fans who have listened to his music that's been produced during the last 12 years, but this album is a milestone in Metheny's guitar-playing; when it was released his playing presented new and personal ideas, licks, and sounds to his listeners. Since this album he has copied a lot of these elements in his guitar playing to other albums. There is a lick in particular (with hundreds of its own variations) that has been reoccurring almost everywhere he has been present since Secret Story, and that lick (present e.g. on track 2 at 2:35) is on the verge of overuse here, but it is new, and something that really personalizes his playing - a neat trademark.
In addition to members of the London Symphony Orchestra (whom are present throughout the album) a lot of known musicians guest; Will Lee, Charlie Haden, Steve Rodby, Anthony Jackson, Steve Ferrone, Paul Wertico, Gil Goldstein, Lyle Mays, and Toots Thielemans are only a few.
"Finding and Believing" and "The Truth Will Always Be" are two definitive 10-minute highlights of this (76+ min) album; both pieces feature thrilling string arrangements. On the latter Metheny plays a 3.5 minute long "guitar synth" solo that progresses incredibly beautifully after a 5+ minute introduction that is dynamically built up by percussion, synth "effects", and members of the LSO. No album is, on the whole, comparable to this; it's extremely personal, and the song titles suggest the moods quite accurately. The musicianship, compositions, arrangements, and instrumentation are beyond all praise. Pat Metheny is more than a jazz-trio guitar player. Here he plays--in addition to both electric and acoustic guitars--electric and acoustic keyboards. He uses a big variety of only beautiful guitar sounds throughout the album, and a cool synclavier accordion sound on "Antonia." This album is a definitive must for any Pat Metheny fan, and without doubt it will attract, and has attracted, people who aren't even familiar with the phrase "jazz".

Since 1992, this album has been my most prized cd. As a Pat Metheny fan, it's difficult to say it's my favorite because his works are like children...how do you pick a favorite. From the eerie sounds of the Royal Cambodian Choir in the beginning to the orchestral movements at the end, this is trully a story in music. It's a movie in sound waiting for a screenplay. Many nights in the Summer, I lay on a raft on a quiet lake with Secret Story playing on the dock. The songs seem to take star gazing to a new level. Thank you Pat for your attention to detail and imagination.

If you could take just one album with you which would it be? Secret Story would be mine. As an avid PM fan this is surely the very best. "Longest summer" generates some of the classic PM guitar movements as does "tell her you saw me". Even after a hundred plays this album still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If you are in love, outta love or looking for love this album has a track for you. Sounds that are very rarely heard and rarely recreated can be found on this album.

Find an deserted island, get yourself a cool drink and plug yourself into secret story - if heaven were a cd this would be it.

I was once asked: "What style is his music like", and I realized, that it was impossible to give a proper answer. The main thing on this album is that Pat Metheny breaks down the walls between composed(classical) music and improvised(rythmical). He combines instruments and musicalstyles in a way that has (almost) newer been heard before, and he uses the symphonyorchestra, both as a "background-effect" and as the "main group". The last track is an example of how modern composition-music can be made in a way so that people without intellektual musical knowledge will still be listening. The music of Secret Story is almost epical. Even though there is a great diversity between the 14 tracks, they are all combined in some way, listening to only some of them feels wrong. You have to have it all. I will newer be able to pick a CD from my personal collection and say "this is the best one", but if I were to go to the moon and were only allowed to bring one CD, this would be the one.

What a shame that this CD seems to now be out of print. This is, thus far, the seminal work from the extraordinary musician/composer, Pat Metheny. It doesn't get any better than this, folks. I've been listening to this CD for five years straight, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Such beauty, such depth, such real, sincere emotional involvement on the part of Metheny in the composition and recording of this desert album callibre CD always leaves me speechless, introspective, and profoundly grateful for life itself. I realize I haven't written much about the music itself, but rather its effects... but then, music like this points beyond itself to the greatness from which it draws its inspiration. Buy it, listen to it, reflect upon it, lay aside the banality, and become who you truly are.

I have been a Pat Metheny fan for over twenty years,starting with the everlasting "white Album".My absolute favorite is "Secrect Story".This C.D. has the most tender and touching compositions that never grow old.I listen to this on my boat on the beautiful Patuxent River in Maryland watching sunsets become even more beautiful with songs like 'Facing West'and 'Above the Treetops'.The composition 'Always & Forever',dedicated to his parents, remind me of my own beautiful loving parents who were together for 50 years alive but will always be together. Buy this C.D. It's a must for any Pat Metheny fan.

There is a cut on this album, "Finding and Believing," which is perhaps the best of all of Pat Metheny's works, possibly exceeded by only two other cuts - "Ozark" and "First Circle" - for sheer joy, exuberance, and musicianship.

I'd been following Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays since their "Offramp" album, many years ago, and was intrigued and memused by Pat's fondness for odd guitars. This album though, absolutely "wowed" me.

"Finding and Believing" cannot be depicted in these clips, because it consists of three very distinct "movements." The first could be described as "oriental funk," perhaps, because of the "lyrics" that overlay the driving beat. But how does the explain the second movement? There is a long passage of quiet rumblings, setting the listener up for the final movement, where we see Metheny and Lyle Mays at their exuberant best. I listen to this song again and again, and never get tired of it. After more than ten years, you can still discover elements in it which you had not noticed before.

This album belongs in any collection of significant improvisational works of the last twenty years. Its depth and breadth are astonishing.

Secret Story is an awesome recording! There are very few albums in which I love every song. Secret Story is in my all-time top ten list for just that reason. Also because each song evokes a different emotion. Each song is beautiful in its own special way. And that is a rare thing indeed.
But if you really want to experience Secret Story in a wonderful and unique way, here is how you can chill out for the entire 77 minutes of this album. Do this: Program your CD player to play all 14 tracks of Secret Story IN THIS ORDER: 9, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 12, 7, 10, 11, 1, 8, 14, 13. It will start out fast, but as each subsequent track plays, the music slows down and gets more relaxing each time. And by the time you get to track 10, you will definitely be in "the zone!" And after that - total chill out.
Pat, you are a musical genius! I hope that anyone who reads this review will try listening to Secret Story in the "slowdown" mode mentioned above. You're in for a truly unique and remarkable experience. Like many of the other reviewers, I have never gotten tired of listening to Secret Story over the many years I have owned it, and each time I listen to it, it's just like it's still brand new. I do have some favorites (Finding and Believing, The Truth Will Always Be), but like I said before, every track is a mini-masterpiece. If you can still find this album, BUY IT, and never, ever let it go!

Once in your life, you should spend an hour and do nothing but listen to this record on a good stereo. It's like PM became a classical music composer and a conductor. Some folks don't like it because of all the symphony stuff, but it really works.