COLOURED DREAMS & HIDDEN SCHEMES

this is actually best of ruphus with a bonus cd with demos and live songs, both disc are very enjoyable, and they seem to have choosen the right songs from all their albums, though i am missing a couple ones, disc one starts of with 3 songs from their debut album which is all very good, next a song that came on a 7" back in the days, this is a bit more commercial, but still very good, only thing is the lyrics are so-so. Then we get Easy Lovers, Heavy Moaners,Pictures of a Day and Love is My Light from "Rhanshart" i Love the 2 last ones here, sadly they have edited out the intro and outro on pictures which is a real shame, those themes are some of the best ruphus things in my opinion. Esy lovers is a more acoustiv based pop prog song, not my cup of tea, the other two are progressive heaven for me.

Then the real fun stars with songs from my fav ruphus album, Sha Ba Wah is one of the high points of this albums, very brilliant composed and played, and nordlys is one of the best norwegian songs ever wrote, this song features Terje Rypdal, sadly there are no more songs from this album (except 2 demos on disc II which i will come to later)

Then we come to the Sylvi years, four songs, Come into view is absolutely stunning and this song is a worthy follow up to "let your light shine" and also The Rivulet is a stunning composition, Sylvi sings very good on these two tracks, the other 2 from this period is allright, but nothing special...Then we get 2 songs from their last album, where Clear View stands out as one of ruphus very best songs ever in my opinion, the other song snowy day is a ballade and a nice way to finish of disc I

Then ladies and gentle men Disc II offers us First 3 demos from the let your light shine period, the first song High as A kite is a very nie and smooth song, the refrain is very addicive and i wonder why this song was left off the album, the next ones are Corner and Second corner, corner starts off a little too light and sound s abit christian to me, but after a couple of minutes the guitar comes in and does a marvellous solo over a great theme, and then it fades into Corner which is a true masterpiece, the VERY best ruphus song of them all, and this demo version is better and much more raw than the orginal which became a bit too polished in my ears (shame on you terje rypdal, producer)

The rest of the album features live songs from 78 nad some unreleaed songs left off their last album ,worth hearing once or twice, but nothing big like the ealier stuff

This album is an excellent introduction to ruphis music, and is highly reccomended!