Random: U2, No Line On The Horizon. U2 means energy and passion to me. On this album the tunes seem too lethargic for the first half of the disc and the usually distinctive guitar and vocal melodies blend homogenously into the heavily compressed sound. The enthusiasm seems to pick up in the latter half of the album, even when the songs slow down. Nothing stands out here.
Selected: Steve Kahn's The Blue Man (1978) uses a smooth jazz-ish sound pallet to convey some really tight fusion ensemle playing with good, but not distinctive song writing and interesting guitar with a light but searing edge. Too much of the spirit of the disc is lost in the dense studio mix, but I bet these guys are memorable live. I like this album and play it with some regularity, but always feel pushed away by moments where the smooth-ish jazz sounds come on too strongly. Fortunately this album came before most of the electronics that make smooth jazz unlistenable.
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