Translated material
Oranges from Morocco
On the contrary, he loves the public very much. And he wants to please her in every possible way. Therefore, he sings mostly time-tested hits. And although he works with a permanent side project (by the way, all the musicians of the side project play here), he rarely records solo albums. Gillan's previous solo album, Dreamcatcher, appeared more than ten years ago, and his last promoted solo album, Naked Thunder, with the hit No Good Luck, appeared in 1990. Gillan isn't trying to write a hit. He already composed a sufficient number of them in the 70s. He doesn't want a tribute to himself - he and his fellow musicians built one a couple of years ago, it's called Gillan's Inn.
Now the irreconcilable Ian Gillan released an album in early March that was clearly aimed not at his fans, not at Deep Purple fans, but rather at an adult audience with good taste who loves to listen to something pleasant, but not stupid. One Eye to Morocco is an interesting mixture of blues, country, folk, and ethnic. The oriental motley album is made up of strong, intelligible songs in the western way. Gillan here does not need to “give a rock vocalist”; in such material he can remain lyrical, soft, cheerful and artistic for as long as he likes. An excellent album, which, I repeat, can be recommended to anyone except fans of Deep Purple or Gillan's other solo projects. Gillan's abrupt transition from hard rock to something eclectic but incredibly attractive can be compared to the incident of the late Robert Plant. The former lead singer of Led Zeppelin also turned first to strange psychedelic blues, then to country altogether, which brought him a bunch of Grammys. Gillan, of course, will not be given any Grammys - he is too correct for the jury, not an eccentric hermit and not “exclusive” at all: he performs too often, too everywhere and does not try at all to attract interest in his own person, even though he is always on to the public. And it’s not the public that gives out awards, as you know.
U-2. No Line on the Horizon (Universal). In the Russian blogosphere, the new U-2 album was unanimously criticized. For our audience, the famous Irish quartet is the messiah, prophet, savior of rock and roll and God knows who else. Why this same public of ours didn’t notice the group in the mid-80s, in its best years (the group, not the public), and why it ignored the old albums - don’t ask. It’s just the way it is: expect achievements and revelations from U-2. Why it was adopted is also unclear. Fans complain about the lack of a bright hit. There really is no such thing: the album is smooth. The first single, Get on Your Boots, was truly creepy when it first aired on our TV during the Grammys. Although the songs are mostly good, strong, with fire and quite diverse. And in general, the sound of U-2 is of a certain value in itself (by the way, for the first time they included producers Brian Inou and Daniel Lanois as co-authors).
There are meditative ballads (the poignant Moment of Surrender and Unknown Caller), there are upbeat songs with an attractive riff (Stand Up Comedy) and a fast guitar “ches” (Magnificient). Probably, there’s really nothing new, but just because of this you shouldn’t expect the brave guys to retire. As, indeed, the fact that they will make a great rock and roll discovery. They have already made this discovery. About twenty years ago.
Rada and Alexander Marchenko. “Lullaby for a cat” (“Vyrgorod”). Rada Anchevskaya is a wonderful (as they used to say, original) singer and leader of the fruitful Moscow group “Rada and Thorn”. For almost two decades, we have not heard any kind of Rada - from gothic (album “Graphics”) to folklore (“Marriage”). “Lullaby for a Cat” is Rada’s first album without “Ternovnik”, but with composer and multi-instrumentalist Alexander Marchenko. This is her most un-Russian work. If you want, European: flamenco, tango... Marchenko wrote music for the theater, BBC documentaries and even cartoons (though strange ones, like Khrzhanovsky’s creations based on Fellini’s drawings). He is a perfectionist and, as Rada puts it, an “old school, not a computer” musician. That is, if it is necessary for the vibraphone to sound throughout the song, so be it. No copy-paste! And the same applies to some small things like percussion or shakers. Therefore, the recording breathes, and in the end the singer herself, in a somewhat unusual environment, manifests herself differently. And he even sings even better than usual (the top notes are just ultrasound). Although, it would seem, where is it better?