TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION

Absolutely essential! The day this was released I bought it and was pretty much disappointed. Friends told me to buy this, because so many well known artist appear. But unfortunately, after just buying albums like Relayer or Foxtrot this one came as a bit of let-down. So why is it essential. Well over the years I leaned to appreciate it a lot. I should say: immense! And this hsa nothing to do with side one which is OK, but not more than that. It's the epic on side two which you should listen to! It doesn't have to do with APP in general a lot. Instead it's a very fine symphonic peace, starting with the classical prelude, throuw some haunting rain stuff, with nice themes ending with to one in paradise which is a very fine ballad. Now one thing which has been stated before: The first part of the Usher Epic is in fact by Debussy. This isn't mentioned anywere, not on the LP, the CD or on many websites. So the best part of APP wasn't written by APP! To be fair, I have the Debussy version as well, and it is not as nice as this arrangement. Moreover the rest of the Debussy piece isn't appalling, so it's good to have it like this, with the rest of the Epic. Another thing: The original or the 87 remake? Well, normally I'd go for the original, but this time I'll go for the opposite: The remake has some fantastic intro's by Orson Welles and Side one and Two are nicely abridges. For me there's no need to but the newly released original-on-CD. So 5 stars as I regularly play Side two of this disc!