An Incomplete Guide To Kayaking: Part 7
Posted on | August 14, 2008 at 7:00 pm | 2 Comments
The wait is over! It’s a been a such a long, long time since the last one and I know you’ve missed these something fierce! This is a continuation of my series of blog entries on the albums of the Dutch progressive rock band Kayak. To see the previous entries, do a blog search (that little box on the top right) for the word “kayaking”.
I’m sure that one of the problems people are having with these entries is that I don’t supply any song samples or anything, so it’s hard to get a feeling about the music from my meager, lame, repetitive descriptions. I’ve always had trouble writing about music, unlike some people I know. So with this entry, I’m going to rectify things a bit. I’ve put the first song from today’s album as the first song on my brand-spanking new muxtape. I wish I could fill the mux with Kayak songs, but it appears to be against the muxtape rules to use the same artist for more than one song. So the theme of the mux is “My 80s” and it features some of my favorite bands/songs from that spectacular, indelible era. My apologies to People Of The Future who stumbled onto this blog entry long after the mux has changed. You must get your Kayak tuneage from elsewhere.
Phase 3 (continued): Pop Prog (1978-1981)
Merlin
Kayak’s eighth album Merlin featured the same lineup as the previous two albums, Phantom Of The Night and Periscope Life. I think. More or less. But this time, instead of going for the radio-friendly pop sound of those two albums, they decided to try an experiment hearkening back to their roots: a slight return to Prog. Side 1 of the album (yes, this came out before the CD Age, barely) was a five song mini-rock opera about the Arthurian legend, hence the album title. Side 2 consists of five unrelated songs that are in more of a pop vein. I suppose its purpose is to show the two sides of Kayak in one album, though the pop side is not very representative of their better pop stuff. Note the awful cover art.
(In what has to be one of the weirdest rock music moves ever, the reformed “Phase 4″ Kayak redid the Merlin opera for the 2003 album Merlin, Bard Of The Unseen. They re-recorded the five songs from the original album, and added nine new songs to the cycle for a total of fourteen. But we’ll get to that later. Note: I prefer these original versions of the five songs from this album.)
The Merlin rock opera starts out with the title track. This may be my favorite Kayak song. It encapsulates everything I like about them in one tasty morsel. It’s longer than I like songs to be, but there’s a lot that happens in its seven minutes. There’s the usual loud/soft, slow/fast dynamics – the song starts off slow and sparse and then explodes. Johan Slager’s rapturous guitar tone is all over the place. Edward Reekers really comes into his own as a vocalist, almost making me forget about Max Werner. I think in some ways the prog material fits Reekers better than the pop stuff does – probably because of that warbly, tremelo-y voice he has.
The lyrics are all historical/mythological/fantasy epic, as expected:
Though my face is a mask yet I know what’s my task
I’ll be guardian of Arthur, the regent, the future king
The fire of wisdom reveals me everything
The mirror flashed, a vision passed
As I heard voices sing…
But what really hits me over the head is the instrumental section and the riffs therein. The first time it appears is just before the 2 minute mark with a piano riff. And then when the lead guitar comes in: nirvana! I love that solo more than my own mama. The same riff is repeated later in the song by wordless vocals instead of guitar – a nice touch. The instrumental section has got a real “MacArthur’s Park” vibe to it (in a good way). Ironic… get it… “MacArthur’s Park”. (Remember: You can hear this great song on my muxtape.)
The second song in the opera cycle is “Tintagel”, a fairly boring ballad. The third song is a rocker, “The Sword In The Stone”, with some medieval sounding synth-flutes. I like it. Song number four is a short rocker, “The King’s Enchanter”. More synth-flutes. Good stuff. The concluding song of the opera is “Niniane (Lady Of The Lake)”. It’s very… ummm… operatic. Symphonic. And a bit bombastic. A good wrap-up to the opera, and it has some nice melodies. It’s bit too long and slow for me, but the Slager solo redeems it somewhat.
The song order for the second side of the album as listed on the Kayak website is different from what’s on my CD of the album, so I’ll go by what I’m used to. I don’t think I ever owned the vinyl of Merlin.
Side 2, the “pop” side, starts off with “Seagull”, which I think was the single. It sounds very “American” to my ears, especially the guitars. Mid-tempo with a big chorus. Almost John Denver-y or something. Catchy but not really essential. “Boogie Heart” is well… a boogie number. Fairly atypical for Kayak and not quite successful, though the organ solo is a nice touch and the simplistic melody is not without its charms. The weird compressed background vocals help to generate interest too. “Now That We’ve Come This Far” is a ballad in the typical Kayak vein. Sounds like something from one of the earlier albums. Nice chorus melody. “Can’t Afford To Lose” is a rocker. The intro reminds me a bit of the disco-fied “Want You To Be Mine” from Starlight Dancer. This is my favorite of the Side 2 songs, even though Reekers sounds like he’s straining a bit on the chorus. The album closer is “Love’s Aglow”, a six minute ballad that’s actually quite pleasant and not too plodding. Lots of instrumental bits in this one. No real chorus. Nice use of acoustic rhythm guitar to drive the later half of the song. Catchy synth riff, lovely background vocals. I like the way it just fades out.
So there you have it. Merlin is kind of a mixed bag, even a failed experiment in some ways, but it’s a worthy addition to the Kayak canon. The first song makes the whole thing worthwhile for me. I think my problem with Side 2 in general is not enough lead Johan Slager guitar. Gimme my Slager! Unfortunately, this was to be the last (real/studio) album that Slager played on. In fact, this is the last studio album before the band reformed in the 21st century. This third phase of the band does have a coda, which I’ll be getting to in the next installment.
Favorite Songs: “Merlin”, “The Sword In The Stone”, “The King’s Enchanter”, “Can’t Afford To Lose”, “Love’s Aglow”.
Latre.
Worrisome Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “steven colbert bodyguard”.
Comments
2 Responses to “An Incomplete Guide To Kayaking: Part 7”
August 14th, 2008 @ 9:09 pm
More kayaking!
How many vacations do you take?
August 15th, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
No vacation! I’m right here!
Although the website did go on vacation for about 19 hours or so…
For the record, you travel a lot more than I do, Steve!