I can still remember hearing Cliffs of Dover on the radio in
Falmouth, MA when my parents were taking my too Old Silver Beach. To say that this song made a lasting
impression on me is an understatement. I
was probably only 12 years old, born in 1978.
That song thus makes this album very special to me.
In fact, I actually probably didn’t get it on cd until high
school. This should beg the question:
Why 4 stars and not 5? The answer is
that, in my opinion though the rest of the album is good, it is unlike Cliffs
of Dover in that the rest of the album is not as good. That is, this album has 1 5 star song, a few
4 star songs, and a few that aren’t really worth listening to. It’s all over the place in quality.
The next best track is Desert Rose, which is track 2. It is different from Cliffs of Dover in that
it has vocals, and that the guitar isn’t quite as majestic. I do enjoy the vocals, and they seem to be
intellectual. In addition, you could
listen to any song on the album around children. Though I’d call Desert Rose a 4 star song, it
is somewhat of a letdown from Cliffs of Dover.
I hadn’t heard this song, or any other songs on this album until I
actually purchased, so I when I bought it, I thought I was going to get
something different than what the album was in reality. There it is.
Eric Johnson is putting me into the john by track 2.
Track 3 is somewhere between 3 and 4 star quality. I like to listen to it. I don’t mind it when it is on. Generally, when I listen to the album I let
it play through, but I don’t put the cd in the player to listen to this song in
particular. That said, between tracks
one, two, and three, you may have something that you can put into a car cd
player and enjoy, especially with a girlfriend, or wife. This album is definitely family friendly
music..
Before this album, so far as I know Eric Johnson was a
nobody. I have heard some of his early
stuff and some of his later stuff, and it is about on par with this album.
I don’t know if I would call Eric Johnson a virtuoso though
often he is famed as one. He is
definitely a good guitarist, and he was even included on the first G3 live
album, where his contribution is decent.
I think Eric Johnson is about as good as Eric Clapton, no better and no
worse.
Track 4 is the first weak track on Ah Via Musicom. It is terrible. Though terrible tracks add to the lengths of
albums, they detract from the album as a whole.
However, then Johnson rebounds with track 5, which is good enough to
call a 4 star track. I dare you to find
one person that will honestly admit to loving this album most for track 4.
Thus, as an album, the quality of the song writing seems to
vary drastically. However, on the whole
it is a great album, and it does have Cliffs of Dover, which is one of my all
time favorite songs. Ah Via Musicom is
definitely worth purchasing, and if you like sophisticated, family friendly
rock, I can almost guarantee that on the whole you won’t be disappointed, but
you may decide to skip through the tracks a bit, rather than listen to it as a
whole.
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