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Jon & Vangelis - The Friends Of Mr. Cairo CD (album) cover

THE FRIENDS OF MR. CAIRO

Jon & Vangelis

 

Prog Related

3.40 | 150 ratings

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greenback
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars WOW! Vangelis cannot be more accessible and catchy than on this record! I find that this record has a perfect mix of New Age, accessible & sentimental music, and some lite progressive elements. This is the perfect example of an album that must be listened with your heart, not your mind, because everything here must be deeply felt, not analyzed! EMOTIONAL WOMEN, please, get this record ASAP!

The mix of Jon Anderson's lead vocals and Vangelis' floating keyboards are absolutely at their best here! Unfortunately, on my white color original LP, I do not have the very famous hit "I'll find my way home". The second part of "Friends of Mr. Cairo" is absolutely beautiful and poignant: Anderson's voice is OUTSTANDING, and it fits perfectly with the echoed, floating and slightly romantic ambience. "Back to school" is a catchy boogie song, having joyful saxes and Afro-American backing vocals. "Outside of this" has similitudes with the second part of "Friends of Mr. Cairo": Jon Anderson's vocals clearly shine in the foreground, and the mellow & ethereal keyboards, the flutes + the electrical sounding piano give an unforgettable & refined character to the song.

On the other side, "State of Independence" contains excellent digital rhythms & percussions, saxes; Jon Anderson's lead vocals are, again, OUTSTANDING! "Beside" has a rather symphonic & gradually increasing in intensity mood, and Anderson's vocals, following perfectly the melodies involved, reach a peak here! Impressive: this track is really refined, and it is among my favorite one: you will keep the melody inside your head for a long time! Finally, the best is yet to come: the last track, "Mayflower", corresponds to the perfect match of Anderson's echoed vocals and Vangelis' ethereal keyboards: the track starts slowly, and then, when Anderson stops singing, the keyboards begin to INTENSELY & majestically saturate all the available space! That's EXTREMELY poignant, especially if you listen it loud: the narration through this is absolutely appropriate, and it is also the case for the NASA-like voice at the end! The track ends beautifully, with a fading overall sound: this is what we call a professionally recorded track!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

greenback | 5/5 |

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