Hey guys, it’s World Cup time! As of…Thursday? Was that first match on Thursday? I remember I watched it, but the past few days have been a bit of a blur. Probably because I haven’t been sleeping well and there was a night of drunkenness in the middle to further screw up my internal clock. The US Men’s Team won today against Ghana (I was at work, but I heard it was a good game!) and Germany destroyed Portugal. I’m looking forward to watching more games on my days off this week, as I think the World Cup provides one of the best viewing experiences in all of sports. I’ve never watched an MLS game in my life and never cared about any Euro leagues with more than a passing interest, but somehow I’m totally enraptured by the World Cup. When it was in South Korea I remember getting to work at the golf range at 8am and watching all day. I don’t know if it’s the atmosphere surrounding the matches or the quality of the players, but there’s something uniquely special about it.
There are 32 countries represented in this year’s World Cup. So for the next few weeks I’m going to try and make my An Album A Day posts correspond to different countries competing this year. I don’t think I own any records from Cameroon (they were always my favorite team as a youngster, I think because of the uniform colors) but I’ll scour as best I can to find some something that can represent most of those 32 nations. First up is Greece. And who better to represent Greece than…Mikis Theodorakis!
Just kidding.
The obvious choice to represent Greece would be Aphrodite’s Child. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted both 666 and It’s Five O’Clock before. And I don’t own the Akritas record, or the Axis record. So when it comes to Greek albums I own, the two best ones to come to mind would be Heaven And Hell, and Earth, both by Vangelis. My copy of Earth is actually a French Vertigo pressing on the black “spaceship” label. Although it carries the 1973 date on the label and cover but I’m sure it’s a repress. I just don’t know when from. In any event, it was added to my collection on April 3rd, 2008. Purchased her in Los Angeles from a store on the east side of town.
Johnny Loftus at AllMusic wrote of Earth:
Originally released in 1973 (with a 1996 PolyGram CD reissue in Greece), Earth is Vangelis’ first real solo album. It was made in Paris after the release of 666 and the eventual dissolution of Aphrodite’s Child, but before the epic decadence (nearly to Ken Russell levels) of Vangelis’ 1975 effort Heaven and Hell. There’s plenty at work on Earth, from the straightforward Euro-rock of the era, to progressive flourishes, to flashes of mysticism, and those ever-prominent synthesizers. So the record represents a moment in time, for sure — Vangelis seems stuck between rock, pop, and epic scope — but for the same reason it’s an intriguing, engaging listen, particularly for completists. Opener “Come On” is a lank-haired stomper — it doesn’t really go anywhere beyond Argiris Koulouris’ blistery lead guitar work, but it’s a fun two minutes. “We Were All Uprooted” switches gears radically. An eerie flute drifts through thunderclaps and sifting rainfall, and the percussion plods forebodingly; it’s a primordial feel, like a soundtrack to man’s discovery of bipedal movement. “We became a diaspora,” a narrator says. “An unnamed nation of bastards.” The shorter “City” is a street scene with a faraway chiming bell, while the equally brief “Ritual” offers ambitious, wordless vocal harmonies over a spare arrangement for electric piano and fantastically reverberating percussion. They’re bridges on Earth for the weightier pieces, adding crucial continuity between the traditional feel of the harmonies and tables in “Sunny Earth” and the airy hopefulness and prettily shimmering synthesizers of “My Face in the Rain” (“I’m happy/And that’s all I know”). Other Earth highlights include “Let It Happen,” which fuses the psychedelic rock of the 1970’s Aphrodite’s Child LP It’s Five O’Clock with Vangelis’ expressive synth work, and the closing suite, “Watch Out” and “Song,” where progressive tendencies meet amidst classical piano, stargazing keyboards, and the return of the “Uprooted” narrator’s flowery poetics. Earth’s stylistic melting pot means it’s not always effective. But its creative drive can’t be faulted, and Vangelis consistently favors melody over melodrama.
Pretty cool, right? I think so. Go Greece!
Vangelis
Earth
(Vertigo ?– 6499 693, 1973)
A1. Come On
A2. We Were All Uprooted [MP3]
A3. Sunny Earth
A4. He-O
B1. Ritual
B2. Let It Happen
B3. The City
B4. My Face In The Rain
B5. Watch Out
B6. A Song
