Klaatu/Hope

Artist: Klaatu
Label: Bgo - Beat Goes on
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 5017261205186
ASIN: B000056H49

Release Date: 2002-02-15

Klaatu/Hope

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Tracks:

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognised Anthem ...)
California Jam
Anus of Uranus
Sub-Rosa Subway
True Life Hero
Doctor Marvello
Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III
Little Neutrino
We're Off You Know
Madman
Around the Universe in Eighty Days
Long Live Politzania
Loneliest of Creatures
Prelude [Instrumental]
So Said the Lighthouse Keeper
Hope

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Customer Reviews:

Several reasons to buy it........2005-01-12

This review only pertains to the first portion of this CD, the 'Klaatu' album.

I first became aware of this album when my brother brought it home and, like many things, he's completely forgotten about it and I'm still listening to it. At any rate, he primarily bought it because of the famous "Is it the Beatles?" controversy. Be that as it may, I still love this thing for several reasons.

First of all, it's very emplematic of the musical scene at that time, when the world was still trying to get over the 60s and realizing that the Beatles really HAD broken up. This album is a wide ranging mixture of musical styles currently coming into vogue at the time and many that harkened back to the acid 60s. If you were a teenager during that time, you'll know what I mean.

Undoubtedly, this is a quirky set of songs. Most of the melodies and song structures are fairly straightforward, but underlying many of them is kind of a dark, creepy undertone. For example, the second track, California Jam, starts off as sort of a standard beach-rock tune, but then in the middle we get a delightfully sung bridge having to do with. . . .the future San Andreas quake that will kill thousands and drop part of California into the ocean. Okay then.

The other songs generally swing between rock and late 60s popular music (with two notable exceptions) but they create an entire album of individual songs that somehow hang together to create a full, enriching experience. Many bring in snippets of very Beatles-esque riffs, not only on 'Sub-Rosa Subway' the one that created the Beatles controversy, but others as well.

The two most interesting tracks are probably ' Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III' and 'Little Neutrino'. The former sticks out like a sore thumb and one at first wonders why it's even on there -- it seems more like it ought to be on a children's record. But after listening, it does, in fact, fit in, and still contains that creepy element (going to HELL and back) and brings in a lot of melodies reminiscent of Victorian-age exploration.

'Little Neutrino' is almost reason alone to buy it. Again, the band uses fairly traditional melodies and structures, but puts them into a context that melds together the old and new: guitars and viola with extremely well-done synth. Many of that era just played around with synthesizers, but Klaatu mastered it and really used the new sounds to good effect. That is, they didn't just throw it in there to play around, they fit the sounds to the song as a whole. It just works. As a science geek, it also captures much of the post-'2001: A Space Odyssey' mood going around at the time, when space was still kind of mysterious (as opposed to the post-'Star Wars' era) and astro- and sub-atomic physics were bringing weird things like neutrinos to the public consciousness and the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft were heading out to the outer solar system.

Six words for listening to 'Little Neutrino': Get headphones. Turn it up LOUD.

So in essence, it's a weird sort of album, but it works if you give it a chance, and should really bring you back (or there to begin with if you're younger than 30) to the mid-70s rock scene. Once you get over the initial shock of how different the tracks are, it all makes sense and they're really enjoyable.

And please, someone shine a black light on the damn thing and let me know if any myeterious writing appears anywhere.. . . .

Thanks for the memories........2003-10-24

I, too, was first drawn to Klaatu by the rumor that they were the secretly reformed Beatles. I bought their first album, "Klaatu" and pored over it, looking for clues or proof. Certainly, some of the Fab Four's orchestral imagination was in evidence, swirly, brassed-up pomp & circumstance a la "Sgt. Pepper", but, in all, the sound belonged only to Klaatu themselves.

I went on to buy "Hope" and, many years later, "Magenta Lane". For the most part, I loved the trippy, happy music that often told wonderful, lighthearted stories, like "Anus of Uranus", "Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III" the story of the only man whose been to "Hell and come back alive". But they were capable of much more serious and thoughtful work, as well.

Klaatu was, without a doubt, a product of the 70's. Such lush, pensive music was a staple of bands like Led Zeppelin, Marillion, Rush, Genesis and Styx, but could not be produced today. But if you like that sound and you're open to trying new, old things, give them a listen.

...Hype.......2002-11-27

This little known Canadian band reached their notority as being panned "the second coming of The Beatles". The fact is they were not the Beatles but they had the music critics fooled. The rumours went like this, supposingly The Beatles recorded a follow up to "The Revolver" album but the master tapes disappeared from the studio and then reappeared in 1975. They provided no biographical information and were very secretive about their indentities. Because of the rumours, record sells shot to the number 32 position on the billboard chart and stayed there for several weeks.

The Klaatu name is taken from from the 1951 science fiction movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still", Klaatu being the central figure. The album title refering to the exact time the spaceship in "The Day The Earth Stood Still" landed. Ringo's "Goodnight Vienna" album cover, Ringo is seen coming outing out of the spaceship used from the movie. And the "Sub-Rosa Subway" as thought of as being a take from McCartney's "Red Rose Speedway".

Klaatu/Hope burst with so much creative energy that it still sounds as refreshing today. Incorporating jazz, rock, pop and classical which paints a colourful picture in sound...they are very well engineered albums. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft will perhaps be known as a song being covered by "The Carpenters", a sugary approach. There are some silly songs on the disc, most notable "Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III"...which by the way Bods, Worth, Rubbles and By meaning "persons of importance born of quarry...The Beatles were first known as The Quarrymen.

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