Curds of the Shire

Overall Album Score: 9.7 out of 10

Man!!! MAAAANNNNN!!!! This album is even more freaking brilliant than The Inner Mounting Flame. Much more brilliant! ... Plus, it's more accessible! (Or maybe that's why I'm saying it's more brilliant ... but the entire reason it's so brilliant is its more-than-effective method of conveying emotion via instruments.)

Have you ever wanted to hear instruments talk to each other? **TWO** songs in this album ("Celestial Terrestrial Commuter" and "One Word") feature that in a way that's both amazing in the artistic sense and utterly delightful in the aesthetic sense. Even if all the other songs sucked (which they don't), this album would be completely worth purchasing just for those two tracks!

Fortunately all the other songs on here are great as well. "Birds of Prey" is an utterly exhilarating album opener. "Thousand Island Park" is a highly emotional song expressing feelings of calmness and then uncertainty. "Sanctuary" is totally creepy. "Open Country Joy" expresses happiness ... until something bad happens ... but everything turns out okay at the end. And finally, "Resolution" is creepier than "Sanctuary!"

Simply put, this is an album that you should purchase if you can. The only person who is able to write instrumentals this captivating is Brian Eno ... a few years down the road. (Mind you, this is still a fusion band. They're not doing this using synthscapes. They're still a fusion band playing a guitar, drums, violin, keyboard ... and other stuff.)

Overall Album Score: 9.7 out of 10 (Utterly excellent songs from beginning to finish. The only one I'm not particularly thrilled about is "Miles Beyond.")

Average Song Score: 9.6 (The best instrumental-rock songs I've ever heard ... one of a kind, I say.)

Album Tilt: 9.5 (It's a great album! It flares-up my emotions and takes them for a thrill ride!)

Artist Rating: 10 (One of a kind! ... Perhaps Brian Eno is the only person who can make instrumentals this good. And these are a completely different *kind* of instrumental. One of a kind, indeed.)

Track Reviews

Birds of Prey 10/10

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! The song starts out rather creepy (and mightily engaging) while keeping that whole fusion thing they developed in their debut. And then it slowly gets more exciting and dramatic ... all the while keeping the instrumentation just PERFECT, and ... man! I really like that violin sequence in here. It's repetitive (that's the point) as it slowly fades in and out ... highly memorable. ... The electric guitar solos here puts bands like Styx to utter shame. Oh, crap! This is an utterly STELLAR album opener! ... I can't imagine instrumental-rock being much better than this!!!!!!

Miles Beyond 8.5/10

This one rotates being loud and quiet ... both parts being equally as exciting! ... This song is played mightily well, of course. There's a very nicely used plucked instrument (that I think must be a violin). ... This isn't an amazing song, really, but it remains highly enjoyable, and the band members' instrumental abilities are utterly enviable!!

Celestial Terrestrial Commuter 10/10

SCORE, AGAIN! Don't you just DIG how these instruments are played? Have you ever seen so much skill in your life??? ... (Well, there certainly aren't a whole lot of bands who can do this.) Other than this song creating yet another phenomenally exciting atmosphere, they play their instruments as if they were in a conversation. The guitars come in and say something. Then a synth comes in and replies. The violin gives its two cents worth. The drum does something. They all argue back and forth a little bit. ... THIS STUFF IS WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... Oh, man!

Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love

Twenty-two seconds of space noise! ... Um ... woot!

Thousand Island Park 9.5/10

Quieter this time, and it starts off very serene! ... Just a piano and an acoustic guitar playing some very nice jazzy things. ... It does give a nice instrumental equivalent of a park! ... It's a clear day and these sweet little bugs are fluttering all over the place (not getting into people's food, yet). And then, suddenly, the song isn't quite so pleasant. It gets more dramatic (without increasing in volume) and the instruments become busy (the bugs are getting into your food now). Man, this is ANOTHER wonderful song! Crap! These guys are freaking geniuses, or something. Brilliant stuff.

Hope 9/10

This is too unsettling to sound HOPEFUL! ... But this is quite unsettling, which makes it another success for The Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's very short, but it certainly makes its presence known!

One Word 19/20

Now, this song is nearly 10 minutes long! (Eek!) It starts out very dramatic and threatening. Then it gets quieter and still sounds utterly busy and enjoyable. ... Then it builds up!!! And then drops off... It gets very quiet and piddles around ... it starts off not being too busy (though achored by a quick drum beat and some bass). And ever so slowly it picks up steam! ... The song is actually quite danceable at this point (...and it does sound a bit dated here, but ... I don't hold that against them) and there's some *to die for* guitar licks in here! ... and what happens eventually after this is **THE** #1 thing I could have hoped for! THE INSTRUMENTAL CONVERSATION IS BACK!!!!!! AND THEY STAY FOR LONGER THIS TIME!!!! They start off having a nice conversation, but it slowly develops into a heated debate, and they get off into a huge FIGHT eventually. Utterly priceless. ... This band is worth every penny just for these moments, I say. ... After that, there's a drum solo. ... It's actually pretty good, surprisingly. ... It still doesn't mean that all drum solos are boring and they one person who's having the most fun with it is the drummer himself. Heck! It's better than those freaking drum solos in CREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... though only slightly ... (the main reason this song isn't getting full points is because of this drum solo, but ... don't worry your pants off about it...) Then the instruments come back, being all excited and irritated and stuff (Yeah! They didn't care much for the drum solo, obviously!) ... and that's how the song ends. What a thrill!

Sanctuary 9.5/10

Hah! What a wonderfully creepy song! ... They really manage to pack on the atmosphere tight as it increases and decreases in volume and intensity ... and the instrument playing is as solid as ever. Really, quite an effective song! Nicely done.

Open Country Joy 10/10

Yay! Just as the title suggests! The song is happy! ... Pleasant instrumentals with a perky violin to make everything happy. AND THEN! HORROR BREAKS LOOSE!!! BWAH HAH HAAAAAHHHH!!!! ... The instrumentals get more violent and ... yeah. That was a mean thing to do. I was happy and then you had to make it all scary and stuff. Meanies. ... Boy, how effectively scary this is! ... And then things start getting hopeful, again! (I particularly like the violin in this part.) And I'm happy. Wooohooo!!! This stuff is great.

Resolution 10/10

A song about the U.N.! ... Okay, maybe not. But this two-minute instrumental certainly makes its presence known! This might just be more spooky than the previous two songs combined! Utterly creepy guitar strumming behind this evil synth ... and THEY GROW LOUDER AND IT REFUSES TO STOP UNTIL IT GRABS YOUR WILL TO LIVE!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Be the comment-person, maaaaaaaaan here.

erfinagerfin@hotmail.com (Nick) received Oct. 27, 2005

I guess it's true that only Eno can write instrumentals as breaktaking as these, but that's really in a whole different fashion. The amount of sheer energy on this album is astounding...I'm certainly disappointed to find that there isn't a whole wealth of music like this, but there really aren't too many guitarists on the level of John McLaughlin either. I definetely recommend you check out the Frank Zappa album "Hot Rats", however...it's a (mostly) instrumental jazz-fusion masterpiece, just as good as Birds of Fire in my opinion.

But yeah, about this album. It's really just about as good as white guy-jazz gets. The title track is astounding, those guitar runs are fantastic. My favorite piece on it however is "One Word"...the part you called a 'conversation' is my favorite part of the track...there's a violin line, keyboard line, guitar line, and soon enough all three are playing at once. It really sends shivers down my spine to hear that.