このCollectablesレベールの特徴は総じて音圧&音質が良くありません。ここに収録されている代表曲『REMINISCING』『THE NIGHT OWLS』などベストアルバム(2000年リリース/GREATEST HITS)を例に挙げれば比較にならないくらい音圧&音質が劣ってしまいます。この2作品は国内盤では復刻されておらず現在は輸入盤しか手に入らない貴重なものだけに複雑な気分になってしまいますね・・・
5つ星のうち5.0Sleeper Catcher alone is worth the price of this double feature!
2009年9月26日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
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Although they may never get the credit they deserve for paving the long way to America for other Australian acts like Air Supply and Men At Work, The Little River Band did so with stellar musicianship, beautifully arranged vocal harmonies, and some incredibly versatile songcraft. Anyone who truly lends Sleeper Catcher the ear it so richly deserves would be hard-pressed to force it into any single conventional category. While generally regarded as soft rock or adult contemporary, in truth The Little River Band harnessed any number of progressive elements to make their particular brand of popular rock music far more intriguing than many of the groups with whom they typically get lumped.
Shut Down Turn Off opens Sleeper Catcher with a nicely progressive chord structure before "progressing" into the core of the song. It then ends in such a cleverly ambient manner that I cannot help but think that it would probably make Alan Parsons proud. It's the sort of album-oriented song that used to thrive in the 1970's and make the album experience unique to simply listening to the radio. But as much as I love Shut Down Turn Off, I love the languidly jazzy and beautifully arranged "Light of Day" even more!
The two big hits off Sleeper Catcher are Reminiscing and Lady. While I like the former, I love Lady for its, again, more progressive arrangement which ebbs and flows whereas the arrangement of the former is much more straight-forward and conventional. That said, one cannot find fault with the chord progression in album's biggest hit. Other songs that really standout are "Fall From Paradise" and "Sanity's Side" which seems almost like a prelude to another fantastic LRB song Cool Change.
While Sleeper Catcher is a solid five-star achievement, Time Exposure is best rated with four stars. Good, but just not inspired in the same manner that Sleeper Catcher clearly was. But even with that said, there are several fantastic songs on Time Exposure like Take It Easy On Me,Man On Your Mind, and, especially, the standout track on the album The Night Owls! The album-oriented songs on this album probably won't grab a newer listener immediately, but, given time, I think many will grow to appreciate Ballerina, Guiding Light, and We Two.
Two albums together from this Brilliant Australian band. After seeing them live many years ago I hoped that they would keep on producing lots and lots of fabulous albums, but unfortunately they didn't. Great tunes, great musicians. If youi get a chance, obtain a copy of Diamantina Cocktail from them as well.
This combo album blends some of LRB's best stuff along with some of their less-noted but not less worthy material. Everything on the two albums is great and shows why they were one of the truly great bands of the '70s and '80s.