One of the side benefits of undertaking a project
like this is that I sometimes actually learn something. Not high knowledge
maybe, but I do tend to come away from most of these albums with my
horizons slightly expanded and with at least a little bit of worthwhile
knowledge I didn't have before. Take this album as a case in point; this time
last year the name Waldo De Los Rios would have meant as much to me as advanced
Calculus (i.e. none at all), but since finding out back on Smash Hits 71 that he'd had
a European wide hit with a pops version of Mozart's 41st, I've also discovered
he released a whole album of this stuff ('Mozart In The Seventies') that has
been described as 'Mozart plus sacrilege'.* Having now heard that album, I can
see where that comment is coming from - playing Mozart in the style of a hoedown
was never going to get the purists onside, and it's why my finding that De Los
Rios name attached to an album of popular songs meant it was a no brainer that I
had to buy it to see what kind of 'sacrilege' he was going to dish out to them.
And so with a glass of wine and my knives freshly sharpened, I sat down to
listen.....
.....and I'm pleased to say that for once I've been taken by surprise. For one thing, De Los Rios is a lot more reverential toward these tunes than he ever was toward old Wolfgang. Sure, a lot of the stuff on this would take no small bloody minded effort to make a total mess of ('Dock Of The Bay', 'If I Only Had Time', 'Windmills Of Your Mind' etc are all warhorses that are hard to derail.), but rather than going for the soft option of pouring a bucket of slush over the top of them and dishing out a bowl of gloopy muzak, Waldo for the most part delivers solid versions of these songs in arrangements that veer off piste just far enough to break up their familiarity and keep things interesting but not far enough to crash headfirst into a tree. None of them follow a particular formula, and each has it's own bit of business that catches the ear with its unexpectedness; a stab of horns here, a piano run there, a P Funk-type bassline and drum shuffle elsewhere - it's all different, but it's all restrained enough to work within the structure of the original tune.
Like a respectful architect designing a contemporary extension to a Medieval church, De Los Rios actually sounds like he knows what he's doing and has put some thought into his arrangements. For example, his take on Donovan's 'Lalena' adds an edgy drama of Scott Walker-like swooping strings that builds on the downbeat sparsity of the original and colours its open spaces. The only time he really breaks ranks to let his freak flag fly is on the version of The Beatles' 'Something' whose fuzzy guitars and hard plucked bassline could be have been culled from a Goblin soundtrack to a Dario Argento horror film; it's really rather wonderful. If I was going to offer up any major criticism it's that the music on the disc is too busy and skittish for lights down romance the title implies you're going to be getting, but if you're into each other the way that pair on the cover seem to be then I guess it's not going to matter all that much what's playing in the background.
* By English radio and television presenter Robert Robinson.
.....and I'm pleased to say that for once I've been taken by surprise. For one thing, De Los Rios is a lot more reverential toward these tunes than he ever was toward old Wolfgang. Sure, a lot of the stuff on this would take no small bloody minded effort to make a total mess of ('Dock Of The Bay', 'If I Only Had Time', 'Windmills Of Your Mind' etc are all warhorses that are hard to derail.), but rather than going for the soft option of pouring a bucket of slush over the top of them and dishing out a bowl of gloopy muzak, Waldo for the most part delivers solid versions of these songs in arrangements that veer off piste just far enough to break up their familiarity and keep things interesting but not far enough to crash headfirst into a tree. None of them follow a particular formula, and each has it's own bit of business that catches the ear with its unexpectedness; a stab of horns here, a piano run there, a P Funk-type bassline and drum shuffle elsewhere - it's all different, but it's all restrained enough to work within the structure of the original tune.
Like a respectful architect designing a contemporary extension to a Medieval church, De Los Rios actually sounds like he knows what he's doing and has put some thought into his arrangements. For example, his take on Donovan's 'Lalena' adds an edgy drama of Scott Walker-like swooping strings that builds on the downbeat sparsity of the original and colours its open spaces. The only time he really breaks ranks to let his freak flag fly is on the version of The Beatles' 'Something' whose fuzzy guitars and hard plucked bassline could be have been culled from a Goblin soundtrack to a Dario Argento horror film; it's really rather wonderful. If I was going to offer up any major criticism it's that the music on the disc is too busy and skittish for lights down romance the title implies you're going to be getting, but if you're into each other the way that pair on the cover seem to be then I guess it's not going to matter all that much what's playing in the background.
* By English radio and television presenter Robert Robinson.
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