Retrospective

Retrospective Artist: Retroheads
Label: Unicorn Records Canada
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 777078911742
EAN: 0777078911742
ASIN: B00076GOF2


Release Date: 2004-11-15

Retrospective


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General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

  1. Earthsong
  2. Man
  3. Judgment Day
  4. Dreams
  5. World Reveal
  6. Starry Night
  7. Urban Flight Delight
  8. Taking my Time
  9. The Fool

Similar Items:

  1. Introspective
  2. The Yearning
  3. A Place in the Queue
  4. Spock's Beard
  5. Man Made Machine

Album Details

The Retroheads-project was Started in 2003 by Tore after He Had Been Working Several Years as a Commercial Music- and Sound-producer for Radio and TV in Norway.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Refreshing and not very Retro.......2006-08-08

Despite the name, this is not really a retro release. There is organ and mellotron and bass pedals ala 70's prog, but the song structures are more complex and the production is pristine. One can hear echos of Genesis and Pink Floyd, but I found the whole to be very refreshing. There are extended instrumental passages and plenty of distorted guitar solos to offset the dreamy mellotron. The vocals are well done and the female harmony vocals add a nice touch. I can truthfully say it got more play time than any other CD I bought in 2005.

3 out of 5 stars Eh....and this had the potential to be something really special...........2006-01-05

Certainly derivative of some of the 1970's progressive rock masters, this album started to differentiate itself with its mix of space-prog, the occasional jazzy male/female vocals, some neo-prog touches, and decent melodies.

Yet, too often, I found it irksome.

Similar to the album cover, the music in general conveys a dreaminess or spaciness, whether in its generous use of mellotron, or in some of the lyrics, or in the electronic "outer space" sounds. While the spacey instrumentals have a kind of cool swing to them, they are too often interrupted with the singing of bland lyrics by group leader Tore Bo Bendixen (who also handles the keys, bass, and some guitars).

Tore sings in a sort of David Bowie/Andy Latimer (Camel) style, but with a slight Norwegian accent. It's not terrible, but also not a big plus. Ann-Kristin Bendixen provides some pleasing harmony vocals here and there. However, the lyrics are just awful; corny and predictable, with rhymes that are both forced and cliched. Mercifully, most of the songs have singing during the first couple of minutes only, after which you get to enjoy the long, spacey (if not entirely original) instrumental passages that end the songs. These typically feature nice guitar/keyboard interplay.

Along with the spacey keyboard sounds, Tore seems to borrow a lot from the Tony Banks school of synthesizers a la "Cinema Show". (Not a bad source from which to be derivative, I guess.) I also enjoyed the Bruford-ish jazzy vocals on "World Reveal" (my favorite cut on the album), and would have gladly welcomed more of this style from the Retroheads.

It's a well-produced album, but ultimately suffers from poor lyrics and a general lack of consistency in its originality. "Retrospective" just doesn't live up to its potential; a few very enjoyable, mid-tempo, space-prog instrumentals just can't save this from my "non-essential" list. (The opinions of space prog enthusiasts may differ with that conclusion.) For me, there's too much other great stuff out there on which to spend my time and money.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:
Music quality = 7.7/10; Performance = 8/10; Production = 9/10; CD length = 9/10.
Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 8.1 ("3-1/2 stars")

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  3. High Five ~ Halfway to Gone
  4. Home ~ Caspar Brötzmann Massaker
  5. "Them" ~ King Diamond
  6. The Best of Elvin Bishop ~ Elvin Bishop
  7. Plantation Harbor ~ Joe Vitale
  8. Best of the Early Years ~ Jimmy Buffett
  9. Time Capsule ~ Snafu
  10. Songs of Summer

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La Colecciõn Cubana ~ Los Van Van

Vokalpolyphonie Aus Der L ~ Various Artists

Kambara Music in Native Tongues ~ Martin Simpson

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Passi d'Autore ~ Pino Daniele