Jon and Vangelis: Page of Life (Summary)
Patrick Laplagne
Vangelis' latest release "Page of Life". It is an original
album indeed, about which opinions are divided, with a
majority of people saying "Not as good as the previous
ones..". Anyway, here is some more info and opinions.
1991 Page of Life (Jon and Vangelis)
Vangelis (Music Composition, performance, production)
Jon Anderson (Vocals, Lyrics)
Derek Wilson (Additional Percussion on "Wisdom Chain" and "Money")
Rory Kaplan (Additional Keyboards on "Is It Love")
Sean Murray (Additional Keyboards on "Is It Love")
Brad Ellis (Additional Keyboards on "Is It Love")
Jimmy Hahn (guitar on "Is It Love")
Eduardo Singore (Bass on "Is It Love")
Recorded at Sound Studios, Athens
Recording Engineer Nico Despotides, Forum Studios, Rome
Engineers Fabio Patrigani, Franco Finetti, Jess Sutcliffe
Assistant Engineer Roberto Rosu
Additional production on "Is It Love" David Tickle
Engineering on "Is It Love" Matt Gruber and Rick Norman
5:22 Wisdom Chain
3:16 Page Of Life
6:07 Money
3:14 Jazzy Box (Instrumental)
6:24 Garden Of Senses
4:27 Is It Love
3:44 Anyone Can Light A Candle
4:13 Be a Good Friend of Mine
4:10 Shine For Me
3:48 Genevieve
5:50 Journey to Ixtlan
1:43 Little Guitar (Instrumental)
CD 1991 WG Arista 261 373
Review by Andrew Studer
Eight years is a long time between albums, and a lot has happened since "Private
Collection" in 1983. I consider the first three J+V albums to all be classics
in their own way, with nary a dud track on any of them, so I tried not to be too
overenthusiastic about this one.
"Page of Life" is a good album. Not a great album, not as good as the previous
three, and a bit disappointing in spots.
However, given that you the reader will probably be more interested in Jon than
in Vangelis, you'll be pleased to know that Jon sounds in good form on this
album, although maybe not inspired. On "The Meeting" from ABWH, I can that Jon
was smiling while he sang (particularly the line "Surely I could tell...").
"Is It Love" is actually a "solo" track for Jon, in that the music isn't played
by Vangelis but by session musicians. It's a good track, and sounds very
ABWHish, but it's rather out of place on this album. Why not get Vangelis to do
the backing? Why not get Yes to do it?
Jon gets in some nice vocal harmonies on this album. "Page of Life", and
"Journey" stand out in this respect, and there's lots of vocal sampling and
playing around on "Wisdom Chain"
This album seems to be a lot "simpler" than the earlier albums. The song
structures are all straightforward ( I miss the semi improvisational style of
depth of arrangement in "Private Collection" has gone, and the songs, quite
simply, aren't as good. Some of them- "Garden..." ,"Journey..." and "Be a
good friend..." seem to meander a bit without getting anywhere, and there's even
a genuine Dud Track: "Money", with two chords and no melody.
Given that the credits (like all the other album) imply that Vangelis wrote all
the music, and Jon just supplied the lyrics, perhaps it would be better if Jon
actually got to contribute a few melodies and musical ideas, because in my mind
Vangelis seems to be losing the plot a bit. He also seems to have become
rather enamoured with sample playback machines, so that instead of a real sax
("When the night comes) or real flute ("Inside of this") or real guitar ("The
road"), we get samples. The sampled trumpet solo on "Wisdom Chain" is
abysmal. The sampled guitar solo of "Little Guitar", while pleasant enough,
would have sounded better on a real guitar.
In summary: if this had been the first Jon and Vangelis album I'd heard, I
would have said it was rather good. But given the pedigree of their earlier
releases, I'm a bit disappointed. Jon is sounding good- as I say, lots of
good vocal harmonies here, but Vangelis is slipping, I fear.
Andrew Studer.
This, as I said, is one of many opinions, but it reflects the majority
of views on "Page of Life". Only one contributor said "Get it!", most
thought it was only for die-hard fans.
Thanks again to all who answered. Apologies for not acknowledging every
one of them.
Patrick.
P.S.: one poster mentioned that lyrics, while not provided in the CD,
were available at the music ftp server (ftp.uwp.edu) under Vangelis.