Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Made A Believer Out of Me!, September 15, 2004
They just don't make 'em like this anymore! 28 years after its original release, this album STILL sounds as invigorating as the day it was released. Tony Williams, much like his mentor Miles Davis had a knack for picking great talent for his bands, especialy young upstart British guitar virtuosos.
As if John McLaughlin wasn't enough, he went and found the soft-spoken and ridiculoulsy innovative Allan Holdsworth, who spun melodic and fluid solos with the ease of a saxophonist. Already having stints with Tempest and Soft Machine under his belt, Holdsworth's style was jumping to the next level already, and Tony Williams did nothing to stand in the way, in fact, Allan was heavily encouraged and cheered on in his explorations by his bandmates here. Allan did things that just sounded absolutely impossible on a guitar at the time, and I remember so vivdly hearing this album at age 16 and having my jaw scraping the ground in amazement!
Armed with nothing more than a Gibson SG and a Marshall amp, Allan H just roared in an destroyed the place with his emotionally charged soloing and exploratory compositions, and a finely tuned musical sense to make te compostions of his bandmates come alive! Marrying this to William's inventive powerhouse drumming, Tony Newton's funky slithering bass and Alan Pasqua's glassy keyboards, this version of the Tony Williams Lifetime was a force to be reckoned with.
The other thing that still grabs me about this album is the open. raw live sound with minimal overdubbing, as honest and accurate in capturing this band's power in the studio as you could hope for. There's not one weak cut on here, ranging from the stomping funk of "Snake Oil" to the ghostly chord melody of "Fred" and the rip snorting brilliance of "Mr. Spock" (especially with the section where Williams and Holdsworth switch roles, Tony putting forth the solo of his life and Holdsworth bashing out angry Black Sabbath-like power chords underneath before roaring to a great close). The bonus tracks are a VERY worthwhile addition as well, "Letsby" is a slightly different take on "Mr. Spock" and "Celebration" get's more funky while still snarling like a panther (thanks again to Allan Holdsworth's raging guitar).
A serious fusion classic if ever there was and definitely worth adding to your library. Turn it up to 11 and let your jaw drop again!
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Distorted gem, September 1, 2006
Musically, this is a great record, a unique snapshot from the jazz-rock fusion scene of the 1970's. It is energetic, raw, full of brilliant and truly original musicianship, not least from Williams and Holdsworth, with its focus on groove and improvisation. From a musical point of view, I'd definitely give it four brightly shining stars.
Technically, however, this 2004 remaster is a disappointment. Following the current "the louder, the better" trend, it has been compressed and limited to death. The dynamics of the original recording are completely lost and life is sucked out of the music. Worst of all, as a result of this headless pumping-up, nasty digital distortion is all over the place, making listening to it a tiring, painful experience.
If you care for the music of this Lifetime gem, do yourself a favour and get "Lifetime: The Collection" instead. It was mastered in 1992, and although the analog to digital converters of the time may have been slightly less refined than they are these days, the dynamics and the over-all listening experience are far superior.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ferocious, July 11, 2005
When my hormones and testosterone were raging like weeds in spring, oh, at about age 14, but, still, my brain was into musical stuff my little underdeveloped friends couldn't even hope to understand, well, that's when this thing dropped. It's not that "Believe It" scared me, but it blew me back against the wall with a shock so powerful, it never stopped reverberating. Here, after forays into all sorts of strange jazz-rock-funk places, the late great drummer stripped it down to a ruthless core and amped up everything until the precision monster was ready to be unleashed. His drum attack is nothing like the amazing, poly-rhythmic extrapolations of the Miles Davis years. This is hurricane power of another kind. There is nuance -- roar, low roar and simmer-to-boil. Williams and guitarist Allan Holdsworth simply crackle together in a way they wouldn't come close to matching on the pathetic bid for record sales that followed, "Million Dollar Legs." They just beat each other up for six tracks (bonus ones, I see, on the CD) while bassist and keyboardist plodded along and tried to stay out of the way. Check that: Alan Pasqua has a couple nice moments, but mostly it's a two-man show. I don't think this group was onto anything because they were already depleted by the second release. It had less to say than contemporaries -- say, Mahavishnu Orchestra, for example -- so petered out quicker. But this is a cornerstone of fusion, whether you've heard of it or not. Big, crisp, bludgeoning with fireworks of the best kind. While compositionally a cut below, it stands next to Billy Cobham's "Spectrum" for raw power.
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