Search - High Llamas :: Giddeon Gaye

Wonderful record

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 06/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Brian Wilson did rock and roll a great service by not putting out Smile in 1967. Since the album was the best psychdelic masterpiece music fans never heard in their lives, lots of musicians with great taste spent 35 years trying to make a record that would fill the gap Smile's legend left.



Gideon Gaye is the best of these albums. All the songs are well-written and tightly arranged. Strings, harpsichords and horns abound, but always serve the music, never sounding guady or flashy. There are lots of backward tape swells and sounds you can only make in a studio-well maybe that's not true with today's technology, but you get my point- but there is a musical reason for all this and it is never contrived or pretentious. The songs segue well, and the whole CD is a wonderful suite. The Llamas listened intently to their Smile bootlegs, went into a studio, and play every gambit extremely well.



I am glad Mr. Wilson finally completed his masterpiece, so many years later.



But I am even more glad he gave the High Llamas a chance to make Gidion Gaye first. I am just so surprised other reviewers don't like it."