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Vangelis - Earth CD (album) cover

EARTH

Vangelis

 

Prog Related

3.65 | 121 ratings

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TCat
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
3 stars Even though "Earth" is the first official album that Vangelis recorded after the breakup of Aphrodite's Child, Vangelis had recorded a few other albums that were more like soundtracks that comes closer to the sound he would become famous for as an artist than this album. That would explain why many consider this album the logical follow-up to the classic Aphrodite's Child album "666" and claim that it sound more like their next album would sound. Around this time, he also rehearsed with Yes, but never became an official member.

"Earth" is more of a hodgepodge of styles and sound with Vangelis playing most of the instruments. He also brought along his ex-bandmate Anargyros Koulouris to play guitar, provide background vocals and to help his endeavor to tie in better to the defunct band. Also along for this album is bassist and lead singer Robert Fitoussi (also known as F.R. David) who would add his contributions and vocals on 4 of the tracks. A fellow known as Warren Shapovitch also provides narration on "We Were All Uprooted" and the album closer "A Song".

Come On - a guitar led opener driven by a riff and lyrics that repeat the words "Come on" over and over, but the heavier guitar sound is something you don't expect on a Vangelis album. Thankfully, this underwhelming track is short. We Are All Uprooted - crash of thunder, click of percussion and a mysterious sounding synth bring in spoken word poetry giving it a sort of native-american feel with psychedelic leanings as the guitar meanders along. It's actually quite nice, especially when the synths bring in some orchestral flavor. Sunny Earth - Continuing in a world music style, this one brings in tribal wordless vocals in a more African flair. A steady beating drum and minimalistic plucked tabla give it all an ethnic and wandering sound. Halfway through, more percussion comes in and the plucked strings get more playful, but it remains surprisingly minimal, even when the swirling synth comes in. He-O - A bit more intensity here, but the ethnic flair continues. The vocals are more interesting here than they were for the opener. Nice piano and keyboard flourishes add some needed embellishments to help bring this track out. High and low vocals sing the same notes in contrasting registers.

Ritual - Wordless vocals in a chant-like singing style at first, then a thumping drums increases the intensity a bit and then the singing comes back with the keys following the melody. This could have developed a bit more, but is short. Let it Happen - The tempo is a bit faster with the continued ethnic sound, a bit less obvious here, and with a nice vocal melody. A synth-led instrumental carries the middle bridge as we get a more familiar sounding Vangelis interlude before returning to the vocal melody. The City - a short bit with sounds of a city with thumping tribal drums beat loudly along and a bell chimes. My Face in the Rain - Pensive and lovely with vocals accompanied by atmospheric synths. You can almost hear the future here as it has the feel of the Jon and Vangelis songs. Watch Out - Dark drones and a few sudden dynamic outbursts start this out, then a beating drum brings in a rhythm as intensity increases with the psychedelic/world music feel. A sudden change in style breaks the build as things turn more progressive with interesting rhythm patterns and keyboard sounds. A Song - Carrying the mysterious sense of the last track, wordless, treated with tremolo vocals from Robert bring in another spoken word section recalling the poetic feel of the 2nd track. Nice atmospheric synths close it out with a minimal melody again reminding one of Vangelis' future style.

For the most part, this is not much like many of Vangelis' albums that would come out later. However, the fact that there are some passages that reflect that sound let you know that he was searching for his niche at the time. The album might seem a little disjointed because of that, but in reality, the only track that doesn't feel like it belongs is the awful opening track "Come On". Other than that, there is the tribal/ethnic flair of the songs that actually do tie things together better than might not be noticed on the first few plays. The actual disjointed feel comes from some somewhat underdeveloped ideas, as if Vangelis wanted to display his entire palette on one short album. Throughout the album, I get the feeling that things are a bit too restrained, and it doesn't feel as if the power wasn't really released here like it should have been. The album is not bad though, and should be one that is searched out by Vangelis fans, but don't expect it to be his best either. There are some nice passages throughout though and you can definitely hear the future of Vangelis' music in many places. It does work well, however, as a minimalistic-ethnic music album, if you can ignore the first track.

TCat | 3/5 |

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