Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

MODEL SHOP (OST)

Spirit

Proto-Prog


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Spirit Model Shop (OST) album cover
3.74 | 16 ratings | 1 reviews | 0% 5 stars

Write a review

Buy SPIRIT Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 2005

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. The Moving Van (1:56)
2. Mellow Fellow (2:50)
3. Now Or Anywhere (4:40)
4. Fig (2:25)
5. Green Gorilla (2:13)
6. Model Shop I (2:02)
7. Model Shop II (Clear) (4:10)
8. Rehearsal Theme (1:11)
9. Song For Lola (5:47)
10. Eventide (3:56)
11. Coral (4:22)
12. Aren't You Glad (demo) (5:31)

Total Time: 41:03

Line-up / Musicians

- Jay Ferguson / vocals, percussion
- Randy California / guitars, vocals
- John Locke / piano, keyboards
- Mark Andes / bass, vocals
- Ed Cassidy / drums, percussion

Releases information

Material recorded in 1968 for the soundtrack to Jacques Demy's film Model Shop (1969), excluding track 12 which is a demo version; Tracks 2, 4 to 6 & 10 to 12, are previously unissued versions.

ArtWork: Jeff Smith

LP Sundazed Music ‎- LP 5180 (2005, US) Monophonic

CD Sundazed Music ‎- SC 6197 (2005, US) Monophonic

Thanks to Sean Trane for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy SPIRIT Model Shop (OST) Music



SPIRIT Model Shop (OST) ratings distribution


3.74
(16 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(0%)
0%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(44%)
44%
Good, but non-essential (56%)
56%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

SPIRIT Model Shop (OST) reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk
4 stars 4.5 stars really!!!

Model Shop is in ways the soundtrack of a movie made by French director Jacques Demy (funny parallel with Jefferson Airplane working with JL Goddard) but not all of the tracks were originally written for the movie either. This "soundtrack" is a mix of tracks from their second and third albums (some in different version or remixed) and a few originals (some of which were already released as bonus tracks on the remastered reissues. But if you are a fan of the original Spirit, you might want to acquire this and not just completionist's sake.

Starting out on the instrumental dreamy jazzy inflected Moving Van, and the other instrumental Mellow Fellow (a wink to Donovan?), the album veers towards the fabulous with the Now Or Everywhere tracks which is a complete re-work from another classic piece of theirs (won't tell you which so you will get this one if you want to find out ;-) and it is astounding and very powerful, (much?) better than the original version. Comes another atmospheric and instrumental aptly-titled Fog (both Fog And Mellow Fellow where released as bonus on the Family remastered album) and the Green Gorilla (hey we are in a model shop, right? ;-) both being excellent.

The first title track is slightly botched-up but the second part will become the title track of their third album,, while the short Rehearsal theme is reminiscent to the anthemic Elijah. Song For Lola and Eventide are jazzy instrumentals (previously never available before) while Coral (available on the Clear bonus tracks) are all superb tracks (mostly instrumental) where spirit shows us just how great they were at jamming, improvising or writing. The album finishes on a re-recorded (and better imho) version of the great Aren't You Glad.

As for the film itself, this is quite a departure from the usual Jacques Demy's "normal" musical film, like Demoiselles De Rochefort, Parapluie De Cherbourg or Lola. Actually we find the return of that very same Lola some seven years later, modelling erotically in some LA dive. Probably not designed as such, Model Shop became quickly an icon of the hippie counter-culture, much like Antonioni's Zabriskie Point or Blow Up or Shroeder's More or La Vallée, or even Hopper's Easy Rider and The Trip. The scene where Spirit rehearses and then packs up lasts a little less than a minute. Only Jay Ferguson remains, gives the hero a copy of the brand new album (their first one), plays an electric piano tune, lends 100 bucks, discusses the process of creation (the hero is an aspiring architect from Frisco with the Nam draft looming over his head) and then greets manager Grossman.

We won't see Spirit for the rest of the movie, although their music is somewhat present but not necessarily the only one. The main flaw of the movie (besides not using more the band's presence) is that there are many scenes where the background noise is insufferably loud, as if they were always next to an airport's landing strip.. Interestingly enough, this will be Demy's only movie of the genre, as Hollywood had opened him its gates for his musical film capacities and were quite deceived to have this road movie, that foreigner guest's first oeuvre wasn't well accepted by the Middle America, for highlighting its decadence, despite Demy claiming his love in the movie for the city of LA..

If you are a fan like I am, you WILL need this BADLY, as I consider this indispensable "soundtrack" as Spirit's fifth album (rather than that awful Feedback) and while maybe not as good as 12 Dreams, certainly as much as Clear is. You might want to settle for the movie instead or if you got cash to spare, both are worth owning.

Latest members reviews

No review or rating for the moment | Submit a review

Post a review of SPIRIT "Model Shop (OST)"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.