Customer Reviews

World in Motion

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

 

 

This is a truly great, amazingly underappreciated album. Jackson's lyrics may be too political for some tastes, but they are so heartfelt and beautifully stated that they always, always remain poetry. There is not a single dull song on this album, musically or poetically. The best songs are timeless: "World in motion", "How long", "I am a patriot" (what a statement of faith, not in those who run the country, but in the people of the country, and in the importance of sticking to one's beliefs). Then there is "My personal revenge", a deeply moving anthem of forgiveness (with lovely, haunting music to back it up) and two beautiful ballads, "Anything can happen" and "Lights and virtues" (the latter probably my favorite JB song, and one of my favorite songs ever). These are not good songs, or very good songs, they are classics, every one of them, and this album is brilliant from start to finish. Thanks, JB.

I like this collection. It is political, like "Lives in the Balance" (another of my favorites.) There are three songs here that can rank among his best: "Anything Can Happen",
"When the Stone Begins to Turn" and "I Am a Patriot." I play these over and over when I am in a certain mood. The other CD I would rank in his top three? "For Everyman", his second record.Browne is personal, and political, and "personally political" but he knows how to rock, and how to arrange, and how to write, and how to hook the listener. If you like JB but have not heard this effort, take a chance on it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

World in Motion is not Jacksons best-that honor is reserved for Looking East, but this is one of the most haunting albums I have ever heard. Anything Can Happen is clearly the best song on the album and it takes the listener away every time it plays. How Long is the best politically tinged track and the insturmentation is outstanding. Enough of the Night excells on the backround harmony that repeats 4 times, as well as the abrupt but well executed shifts from fast/hard to slow/soft. Critics hit this album for being angry and too political. It's not. Not by a long shot. In fact, if every musical album was like this we might have some brains and awareness among our young people today. (I'm 20 years old, by the way). If you only buy one album by Jackson, dont buy this one-buy his Best of cd. But if you buy two, go for World in Motion-you cant go wrong.

Attention!!! fans of the Jackson Browne who writes songs like The Pretender and Before the Deluge, this album is not all bad. Overall it gets stupidly political(if anyone ever wants to make music that doesn't stand up twenty years later, sing about your current political interests). The later songs on this album aren't worthy of being on a Jackson Browne album, but there is a bright side. This cd is worth the money for the first three songs. No real Jackson Browne fan should be without World in Motion, Enough Of the Night, and Chasing You Into the Light. Enough of The Night especially, is one of JB's best tunes ever. The piano playing is reminiscent of past works, while the synthesizers and guitars make it feel a work all its own. After those few songs, this one isn't much to speak of. Sort of like Don Henley's End of the Innocence, in that this album rocks out and is overtly political. The biggest difference, End of the Innocence is good.

Every review seems to say more about the reviewer than the album. So be it, here. Yes, a long time JB fan, strongly so, the political inspires me, the personal touches me. Generally I've regarded the first three albums as the best and the rest good to great but not really great.

I've reconsidered on this album. These days (which are better than his "These Days" ;~) this album is finding a new home. "Chasing You Into the Light" definately gets me going musically, I don't think it used to. "My Personal Revenge" is as beautiful as it gets, certainly these days as we listen about American torture, Blackwater's calloused inhumane shoot-outs, etc. I recognize JB didn't write it, but the heart that can bring it to an album is simply a good heart in a simple, true way. "When the Stone Begins To Turn", again, I was a bit disparaging before, but find it better and better. "Anything Can Happen" is a bit generic JB, and of course satirical and sarcastic folk find any form of compassion intolerable, but if you ain't hard hearted this song can get to you. I can see how, to the cynical, this song would be easy to ravage, but, I guess I do need a little hope these days, and can appreciate a
any attempts toward offering it.

"I Am A Patriot"...well in the GW America, I ain't, but someday i sure hope i am able to feel some pride in this country again. The sentiments I appreciate, but can't go there still, nonetheless it's a great song musically and in it's attempt.

Thats enough. When the album came out i was ambivalent. These days, it's one of my favorites.

Given that many critics have attacked this album for its strongly political message, it's melodies, with or without strong lyrics, are darkly beautiful, especially the guitar leads in the CD's best track, How Long. Other especially good tracks are Anything Can Happen, Enough of the Night, and the title track World in Motion. There is also the lyrically and musically uplifting When The Stone Begins to Turn. These are only the best, every track on this CD is excellent, and it is the Browne CD to get.

WORLD IN MOTION, the third album in Jackson Browne's protest-album trilogy, is yet another great statement. There are some songs that are a bit lighter in tone ("Enough Of The Night", "Chasing You Into The Light"), but most of the album is a call for social and political change which is, sadly, more relevant today than it was in 1989, even if the references to the plight of Nelson Mandela are a bit dated. It's actually a bit better overall than LIVES IN THE BALANCE, and much more consistent, even if nothing surpasses the former's "For America" in intensity, because much of this album equals that song for strength. Browne's belief that the young Australian tourist jailed in Indonesia on drug-smuggling charges was unjustly convicted makes this an essential purchase for both your ears AND your conscience.

Jackson Browne's 1989 album "World In Motion" does have some excellent tracks on it, though it's highly flawed--based on the other reviews so far, this record appears to have a strong cult following, but it's clearly not an overall masterpiece, & that's coming from myself, a huge Jackson fan. One positive thing here is that he almost completely ditches any traces of the arena rock sound that was highly prominent on isolated tracks from his previous two albums (e.g. "For A Rocker", "For America"), and in that sense, the record somewhat points the way to his 1993 masterpiece "I'm Alive". Also, I don't find the record to be nearly as politically preachy/ lyrically excessive as a couple of the reviews I've read suggest. There is a string of excellent songs on the album. The reflective character examination "Enough of the Night" (infectiously melodic & reminiscent of "Somebody's Baby") & the wishful "Chasing You Into the Light" (lyrically reminiscent of "That Girl Could Sing") are both irresistibly catchy uptempo tracks. Also a gem is "How Long", an eloquent cry for peace & change from the government, with moody, contemplative acoustic lap steel guitar from David Lindley--it's one of the most hauntingly melodic songs Jackson's ever written. Also strong are the bluesy, exhorting title track & the splendidly melodic ballad "Anything Can Happen". Jackson, one of my favorite singers in all of music, is in his usual excellent, passionate form vocally on all of these aforementioned tracks. However, like I said, there are a considerable amount of problems, even on a couple of overall strong tracks. "Enough of the Night" is ever so slightly marred by the annoyingly blurry & partly incomprehensible background vocals (a very minor complaint). The title track features some excessive slamming "drum" sounds that clutter up the song (be sure to check out the worthwhile live version of the track from the Japanese version of his "Looking East" CD), & "Anything Can Happen" has too much of a generic adult contemporary sound. Musically, "When the Stone Begins to Turn" is a rather listless & sluggish attempt at reggae despite the presence of Sly & Robbie on the track. The Little Steven-penned "I Am A Patriot" is an incredibly slight, half-baked ode to freedom, loyalty to one's country, & family values, & "Lights and Virtues" is a dull, tossed off attempt at a positive, uplifting album closer. The somewhat Latin-flavored "My Personal Revenge", written by Tomas Borge & Louis Enrique Mejia Godoy (& translated to English by Jorge Calderon) is rather dull as well, & "The Word Justice", though pretty good, is a bit aimless & lacking in conviction. It seems that Jackson was perhaps having a bit of a case of writer's block with this album, which leads to what I think is the album's key problem--lack of strong song material. Production-wise I think the album is overall pretty good & tasteful, & I certainly don't question Jackson's sincerity, but, to put it simply, he had trouble here on numerous tracks getting messages across as effectively as we're used to from him. On the other hand, he still accomplishes some great songs on here. This is certainly not an album you should feel compelled to avoid--flawed though it is, any really big Jackson fan needs it.

Some good, some mediocre. The good: Enough of the Night, Chasing you into the Night, How Long, My personal Revenge, and Lights and Virtues. The rest, well, in my opinion not up to normal Jackson Browne standards. There's enough good to buy the CD, as I did (an inexpensive used copy), but not near his best. If you're a Jackson Browne collector, as I am, buy it, if you're new to Jackson, buy his double CD, The Very Best of Jackson Browne, or any of his first five albums, Jackson Browne (Saturate Before Using), For Everyman, Late For the Sky, The Pretender, or Running on Empty. They're all far superior, in all respects, to World in Motion.

This is one of my two favorite Jackson Browne albums, the other being Lives in the Balance. Ironically, these are also Jackson's two most heavily political albums. Like many liberals, he was most agitated when a Republican president was in charge, and several of the songs here criticize American military activity and the Reagan years in general. Also, around 1989 it seems everyone and his uncle was writing a song about Nelson Mandela, and Jackson's contribution was "When the Stone Begins to Turn." These political tirades could get quickly tiresome were it not for the fact that Jackson has a good voice and wraps the lyrics in good music. So even if I do not agree with his liberal platitudes and paranoia, I can still enjoy the songs.
My favorite tracks are the aforementioned "When the Stone..." with its reggae/world music beat, the pleasant "Enough of the Night," and "My Personal Revenge," the hopeful, Latin-flavored acoustic ballad of a man vowing to be kinder to his brutal leaders than they were to him (after la revolucion!), kind of like Che Guevara was so benevolent to the folks in Cuba.
The very best song on this album, "I Am a Patriot," was not even written by Jackson, but by Little Steven. It is also the most balanced politically, as the songwriter seeks to rise above ideology and strive for universal values like liberty. But Jackson can't avoid a dig and deviates from the written lyric when he sings "and I ain't no Democrat, SURE ain't no Republican." Had to chuckle at that one.