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Top 5 - Flop 5

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tobi777
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Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by tobi777 »

Hi all,

I'd love to know which ALBUMS by Chris you consider the best / worst.

My Top 5 (1 = the best):
1.Dancing With Strangers
2.Auberge
3.Road To Hell
4.Wired To The Moon
5.Chris Rea

My Flop 5 (1 = the worst):
1.The Road To Hell Part 2
2.Santo Spirito Blues
3.The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes
4.King Of The Beach
5.The Blue Café

All the best
Tobi
tz5632
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by tz5632 »

Hi Tobi,

Here are my Top 5/Flop 5

Top
1 On the beach
2 Wired to the moon
3 The road to hell
4 Espresso logic
5 Shamrock diaries

Flop
1 Santo Spirito Blues
2 La Passione
3 King of the beach
4 Stony road
5 The road to hell 2

Greetings
Tobias
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ann268
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by ann268 »

Hi Tobi and Tobias,

I'm only not a big fan of the Road to Hell Part 2, otherwise I love most of his albums. Old and new.
Santo Spirito CD disc, the bluesy one isn't his best work, but the 2nd part is good.
And to be honest his first CD's, just nice enough. But I don't listen to them often.
I really love King of the Beach.

Anneke
You're never to old to dance!
JohnL
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by JohnL »

Favourites would be
1 The Blues Guitars set
2 Blue Jukebox
3 Santo Spirito blues
4 On the Beach
5 Wired to the Moon

Least favourite

1 Water Sign
2 Dancing down the Stony Road
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by andrew fischer »

Okay, let me in )) My choice may be surprsing for some of us:

TOP
1/ La Passione (1996)
2/ Blue Guitars (especially CDs ## 7-10)
3/ Hofner Blue Notes (2003)
4/ The Road To Hell Part 2
5/ Blue Jukebox

FLOP
1/ Santo Spirito (1CD edition)
2/ The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes (CD2 & 3)
3/ Fool If You Thinks It's Over (Definitive Greatest Hits)
4/ Tennis
5/ Stony Road (not a flop at all, I just do not listen to it that much, too heavy)

Best regards
Andrey
My VK fan page for Chris Rea in Russian: http://vk.com/chris_rea
MRB
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by MRB »

TOP 5

1. Blue Guitars !!!
2. Dancing Down the Stony Road
3. The Blue Jukebox
4. Shamrock Diaries
5. God's Great Banana Skin

FLOP 5

1. Road to Hell 2 (can´t begin to tell how much I hate it)
2. Santo Spirito Blues (what a shame, had high hopes before I got it to my hands)
3. La Passione (1996, not my cup of tea, maybe two good tracks)
4. Tennis (many of the songs could be better if them were recorded on some other era)
5. Dancing with Strangers (few killer tracks like Windy Town and Curse of the Traveller but also many songs which does not move me at all)
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by andrew fischer »

No surprise The Road to Hell Part 2 is in most flop-5s. I also had been cosidering it a waste album for years, until another Russian fan, Elangelo, convinced me it is really worth looking at closer and digging deeper to see how much in despair Chris was when he wrote this album. I carefully read / listened to all the interviews Chris did on this work and I agree with that this was a very paranoia album and absolutely not a commercial take what many accused it of being. I found it a very brave and pretentious effort to say something loud.

It is great example of a fully conceptual album. Even the notorious Road to Hell 1989 album is far less wholistic and more compromising, and includes songs which should not have been there (Daytona, Warm and Tender Love, Wanna Be with You).

As well as the first Road to Hell, Part 2 was quite not an album the record company wanted, which was very rebellious of Chris to do. It is a musical form to say f**k you to his executives, who blamed him a lot for La Passione turning out a flop, which was not Chris's failt but the executives'. Chris was really tired of being pressed so much after his big project went bad and others were rejected and The Blue Cafe was turned into a pop record instead of intended blues take. The same thing happened to Chris in 1982 when he recorded Water Sign all by himself with lots of drum machines and synths, but nobody blames him of doing a bad album because thanks to Germans and the Irish it sold well back then. It could be the same with The Road to Hell Part 2 if Chris could have found himself another Danny Pennyfeather who helped him to promote Water Sign and thus saved his career and gave Chris a fresh breath.

I consider Kiadan Quinn did a great job producing The Road to Hell Part 2, just like he was great producing Blue Jukebox, another abnormal album for Chris.
My VK fan page for Chris Rea in Russian: http://vk.com/chris_rea
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by ann268 »

The thing I really appreciate in Rea is that he has experimented, many artists don't. Road to Hell part 2 is an experiment.It's very unusual for him to make an album like that.
I think he did it , because he liked Rap and Hip Hop. I don't like those music styles, although they are a kind of modern blues. At least as you think at the roots of it ;)
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by MRB »

For me it is all the same what were the reasons for doing Road To Hell Part II, it´s still the worst thing Chris has done. And I don´t listen it ever.

What feels a bit strange is that during release of Road To Hell Part II he did mention that he likes rap and hip hop, but I don´t think he ever said anything like that before or after that release. So did he just say it during the release of this clearly unsuccesful experimental album just to support the release?
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by ann268 »

I think he really liked it in those days for the right reasons. It was the time his daughters were interested in it and he felt some connection, through this music to the youth and maybe the blues....
You're never to old to dance!
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by tobi777 »

He already said he liked this kind of stuff back in 1998 when "The Blue Café" was released. He was fascinated seeing his daughter creating some drumloops in the kitchen (something like that he said in a few interviews). So there were experiments,too - before RTH2.

But as much as I admire his bravery of leaving well trodden paths - I just can't get used to the sound of these electronic beats. That's what he sang in '87 on "I Can't Dance To That". :D

And that's also what I really don't like when I listen to his more recent albums. It's this artificial "cheap" drum sound.

Of course he used drum machines in the 80s, too - like his trusted Linn (LM-1 or LM-2) and I accept these sounds as part of the 80s - but there's nothing like a real drummer playing on a record - or at least samples that sound more organic as the ones he used.

On RTH2 they were at least supposed to sound "modern" (not my cup of tea) - but on "Blue Café" it was really inappropriate in my opinion (e.g. "Since I Found You", "As Long As I Have Your Love") and even more so on the blues records.

Even RTH2 didn't sound modern to my ears - more a wannabe-modern kind - and after listening to it for the first time in five or so years - I think it hasn't aged very well since its release back in '99...
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by MRB »

you share my thoughts on the drum sounds, these machine sounds ruins many of his songs which could be much better or even great if there were not machine drum sound !
tobi777 wrote:He already said he liked this kind of stuff back in 1998 when "The Blue Café" was released. He was fascinated seeing his daughter creating some drumloops in the kitchen (something like that he said in a few interviews). So there were experiments,too - before RTH2.

But as much as I admire his bravery of leaving well trodden paths - I just can't get used to the sound of these electronic beats. That's what he sang in '87 on "I Can't Dance To That". :D

And that's also what I really don't like when I listen to his more recent albums. It's this artificial "cheap" drum sound.

Of course he used drum machines in the 80s, too - like his trusted Linn (LM-1 or LM-2) and I accept these sounds as part of the 80s - but there's nothing like a real drummer playing on a record - or at least samples that sound more organic as the ones he used.

On RTH2 they were at least supposed to sound "modern" (not my cup of tea) - but on "Blue Café" it was really inappropriate in my opinion (e.g. "Since I Found You", "As Long As I Have Your Love") and even more so on the blues records.

Even RTH2 didn't sound modern to my ears - more a wannabe-modern kind - and after listening to it for the first time in five or so years - I think it hasn't aged very well since its release back in '99...
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ann268
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by ann268 »

Today he's 65! What a wonderful day.
Happy Birthday to him.

My flop is also RTH 2! Although a few songs I like. I will never really like it.
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Re: Top 5 - Flop 5

Post by andrew fischer »

Hi everyone here!

Yes, my congratulations as well on The Man turning 65 today!

Yes, Tobias is right, Chris started to mention rap and hip-hop records back in mid 90s, and he even mentioned a rejected hip-hop album project in April 1998. Moreover, he still mentioned hip hop as modern type of blues later well into 2000s. I really do believe Chris regularly listens 2Pac indeed.

I do not mind drum machines that much, even the cheap-sounding ones, and I find them their use quite appropriate on blues records with funky touch (Texas blues album and similar). On The Blue Cafe they were apparently added on request by Warner to make it more "modern" and pop-oriented: yes, Chris was interested in experimenting with electronica at that time, but he originally planned the Blue Cafe to be a blues-oriented record. On both The Blue Cafe and RTH2 elctronic drums sound quality is very good, which you cannot say about Chris's songs from 2000s.

What annoys me much more are the synthesised strings and brass, widely used by Chris over the past decade, including new tracks on La Passione Box. That is why I put 3 of the latest albums into my flop list.

My gift for all of you is a fresh article on Chris's new La Passione in the latest issue of Guitarist magazine, go to page 64: http://vk.com/doc6833809_437327627?hash ... a613c5434a
Chris's picture is taken on Oct, 28 at Abbey Road Studios 2 by Joseph Branston:
Image

Congratulations again and my best wishes
Andrey
My VK fan page for Chris Rea in Russian: http://vk.com/chris_rea
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