THE CITY

Vangelis stays with the electro-prog sound of Direct, but this one is more expansive, meaning that he includes lush atmospheric pieces like Dawn, soft pieces like Twilight, and the grand march which is Procession. In the interim, he paints a tone poem in several sections of the city. This is a concept he had visited before with Beauborg, but here the music is listenable and enjoyable. One of the odd aspects of the album is a sequence where a man, played by Roman Polanski, comes into the city too early for the morning papers. He asks if the city is open, if there any papers, and when he is told there aren't any, he orders a sandwich. We hear him walking up and walking away. This sequence follows Dawn, where the music aptly fits its title. The next piece, Morning Papers, introduced with the Polanski sequence, is a moody piece and is reminiscent of the thought patterns of someone not quite awake yet. Nerve Centre is an intricate piece depicting the inflow of commuters and visitors, and their goings about in the city. Side Streets moves in mid- tempo as if we were on a motorcycle, sound included, cruising around. I particularly like the melody on this one. Good to See You is kind of rhythmic and kind of ambient as the music underlies a young woman talking on the phone. We only hear her side of the conversation and her voice is slightly distorted through an echo or something like that. We can understand her clearly, but she sounds distant. Twilight is soft as said before, and is based around a simple rhythm patter. Red Lights depicts the night life, but its high pitched Japanese vocals and discoey beat doesn't go along with the rest of the album well. Procession ends the cycle. It builds up to a climax, which is the completed complexity of orchestration all following the same melody for eight minutes, and fades out with a reprise of the Polanski sequence. The amazing thing about this music is that it is so evocative of the things it is supposed to represent. Dawn sounds like dawn. Side Streets is a great soundtrack for cruising around town. Everything works. Even though it is more diverse than Direct, the pieces all fit together to make a complete whole. Direct is just a collection of tunes. This is essentially a suite of music. It was also created and recorded in the direct technique. Somehow, though, I do not like it as much as Direct. I would put it a notch below. This is not to say it is a bad album, because it isn't, nor is it to say that I don't like it, because I do. It is different from Direct, and it is different from any other albums he's done (an ongoing quality). The underlying concept may be the same as Beauborg, but the execution is completely different. A good one to have, but not essential, but that is really a matter of opinion. I have read some reviews by fans who were shocked and greatly disappointed, but then again, I have read other reviews by people who liked this album and were shocked and disappointed by Vangelis' more lush works ? all a matter of taste, really. I was a bit shocked myself when I first heard it, but I was not turned off by it. Not at all.