Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Daltrey's 1st Solo CD Displays a Pop Rock Side, July 5, 2007
Daltrey's First Solo CD Displays a Pop Rock Side
It was the year 1973, and a plethora of great albums were to come out of that period. Almost forgotten due to the long list of classics, was the first solo album of current Who lead vocalist: Roger Daltrey. '73 was also the year that the Who released `Quadrophenia' which had its own share of success. Daltrey was approached for a solo project that coupled him with Leo Sayer (single: Long Tall Glasses) and Adam Faith. It was the third solo album by a member of the Who.
Leo Sayer had a carnival rock approach to music: a bit tongue in cheek with a lively high energy uplift. Richard Perry often called Leo Sayer the Charlie Chaplin of rock. These were the types of songs that populated the Daltrey self-titled debut cd. Several hard rocker fans of the Who were highly disappointed in Daltrey converting to a more pop-rock style by his own personal choice. Others lauded the great songwriting and singing combination that Sayer and Daltrey made.
The highlights of the cd are: One Man Band, Giving it All Away and You Are Yourself. They allow Roger D to show this emotive vocal range. In one moment, he is jovial, another shouting rock, and the last is a pathos laden voice. If you love his singing voice, like I do, you will definitely enjoy the mastery of feeling that Daltrey is capable of: perhaps stymied a bit by his music partner's ability, Pete Townshend, and thus allowed the freedom on his solo cd to pursue more of his personal experiences translated into song.
It's an overall very satisfying effort, and is one of Daltrey better solo cds. If you are any Who fan at all, you must at least listen to this cd at least once, and hopefully you will enjoy its nuances outside the Who prison. Roger enjoys himself on this cd: that's for sure. I, for one, was glad to just go along with the ride!
If this review was helpful, please click
the button below for me! Mega thankx!
Jeff Feezle of Macafeez
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Introspective and personal, a great album!, November 3, 2005
Roger Daltrey's first solo effort, "Daltrey", features eight songs written by Leo Sayer and David Courtney, and another two by Adam Faith and David Courtney, and one "bonus" track ("There Is Love"). This is an introspective album revolving around joint themes of loneliness and alienation. While the songs stretch their emotional sensibilities to the point where they could have lapsed into melodrama, they are saved by the sheer honesty and piercing emotional expressiveness of the lyrics. In the opening "One Man Band" we find Daltrey proclaiming "I'm a one man band, nobody cares or understands", which sets the emotional tone for the following nine tracks. Throughout, the album always returns to the main theme of the loner adrift in and overwhelmed by a frightening world. The songs run the gamut from initial expressions of loneliness ("The Way Of The World" and "You Are Yourself"), to tentative emotional contact ("Thinking" and "You And Me"), then back again strongly to the alienation theme with the song pair "It's A Hard Life" and "Giving It All Away", possibly the two strongest songs in the entire set, where we find the defeated Daltry pronouncing "It's a hard life/When you're alone/Cramped in your lonely little room", then despairing "Worked hard and failed now all I can say is I threw it all away". "The Story So Far" frames the dissolution of love found, while the sentimental but beautiful "When The Music Stops", enveloped entirely in quartet-like string arrangement, expresses a heart rending yearning to regain love lost. The succeeding "Reasons" is chillingly defensive and accusatory, with Daltrey's lament "Well I pick up my life and I turn and walk away". The album ends, fittingly, with a recap of its opening notes, "One Man Band". There is a cohesion and unity in these 11 tracks that suggest more than a mere collection of unrelated songs. Daltry proves here that he can function quite well outside the bounds of The Who and, with some help from Leo Sayer's songwriting, gives an emotional tour de force. This is most definitely NOT a Who album. The heavy Who sound is here replaced on several tracks with piano and strings arrangements and a much lighter sound, though electric guitar and drums are present on other tracks and Daltrey proves himself quite the rocker on a number of the cuts. The emotional depth of the songs on this album is quite impressive, making "Daltrey" a classic in its own right. The only negative to this album, in my opinion, is the addition of the bonus track "There Is Love". This is a gospel song which in almost every respect does not fit with the overall feel of the other songs, and seems to be simply an add-on, which I feel only detracts from the album as a whole. In every other respect, though, "Daltrey" comes out a winner.
|
|
|
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great! Ageless! (For me anyway), July 20, 2001
I find Daltrey in his own to be a brilliant diversion from the WHO's work. I grew up listening to both and except for the purposes of this review, i don't really compare the two. The first couple of tracks were soundtracks to my growing up, so i have particular affinity for them. What can i say, it's comfort music!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Roger Daltrey
~ Roger Daltrey
~ Pete Townshend
~ Roger Daltrey
~ Roger Daltrey
- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
