Another album of organ music, though instead of the
usual random, head scratching compilation of music, the
tunes on this album (they're there on the cover) are meant to be linked by the
common theme of 'romantic anniversaries'. I can't see that myself, but that's
rather by the by; despite the intended celebratory angle, it wouldn't be
completely inconceivable to use this music to soundtrack documentary footage of
the Holocaust - it's as sad as Sunday.
Almost wholly played on that organ (save for some very fleeting
guitar motifs) in a lurching 3/8 waltz time and
at an arthritic pace that's
as drab and bland as that cover, Ken picks out the tunes
note by note as gingerly as if the keys were studded with razor blades. It's dry
and it's boring but it's also deliberate and the back cover note presents it as some kind of virtue:
"All are performed with his artful simplicity.
It is a most deceptive simplicity, but he believed in letting the composer's
melodies speak for themselves without all the embellishments used by so many
'show off' instrumentalists, unnecessary embroidery that tended to obscure the
pure melodic lines". Well ok - on the
evidence of this then no one could accuse Ken of being a 'show off', but a
little bit of that 'embroidery' wouldn't have gone amiss - I wouldn't expect him
to go all Keith Emerson on them, but a little flourish here and there to knock
the dust off would have made this far more listenable. But he doesn't, and in
not doing so it raises the question why anyone
would want or need 'Organ Favourites' played in this plink plonk pedestrian way.
Unless, I suppose, the 'romantic anniversary' is of the death of your spouse and
you want something playing in the background as you sob into a faded photograph.
If you do, then this is the record for you. Knock yourself out. But keep it to
yourself eh?
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