Pat Metheny - First Circle
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Artist: Pat MethenyEdition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 1999-11-16
Music Label: ECM Records
Soundtracks:
- Forward March
- Yolanda, You Learn
- The First Circle
- If I Could
- Tell It All
- End Of The Game
- Mas Alla
- Praise
Music reviews of First Circle
Music Review: What a wondrous circle it is...
Rating: 5 Stars
Jolly jeepers, that blew it out the water. I knew PMG was good. Heck, I've known that for a long time, but man, this is one of their best albums, which is definitely saying something considering they've never really made a bad record. Rarely has their permutation of Brazilian backbeats, pop and rock rhythms and melodies, jazz improvs, and Reich-like harmonies blended so well or have been so captivating than on this. To all the people who are cool enough to at least give PMG a chance, I say this: "Offramp" is gold, but "First Circle" is platinum.
The PMG has gotten to a point where record labels mean nothing anymore. The ECM record label has always had a trademark for dishing out raw, cold, Nordic jazz-fusion, complete with "Anno's Counting Book"-ish album covers. It's a label with masters on it to be sure, but PMG has finally said: "Let the falcon go."
Like "Offramp", "First Circle" has the band getting a complete facelift. Dan Gottlieb is gone and has been replaced with the equally talented Paul Wertico, and percussionist extraordinare Nana Vasconcelos leaves the shoes for Argentinan multi-instrumentalist Pedro Aznar to fill. Unlike Nana, whose voice provided haunting ambience rather than poppish stage presence, Aznar comes out swinging, proving full well that he can sing his booty off.
One of the great things about this album is the variety, and the band's control over their own style. The ridiculous opener "Forward March" is a dead-on parody of inept high school marching bands, and can afford to be skipped if you want to get down to the meat of this steak. It's obviously Pat's way of saying that the metal in his mouth didn't blend well with the Satchmo-a-bob back in middle school. Then comes the effervescent "Yolanda You Learn", a space-aged Charleston/new wave jazz/hand-clapping/toes-tapping slugfest. After 22 listens on my iPod, almost all in a row, it has become one of my favorite PMG songs. I heard about it getting plenty of videoplay on MTV back in the '80s, and I kind of wish I was alive to have seen it. I heard it was very impressionistic, kind of like those Charles Schwab commercials with the rotoscoping animation. How cool is that?
Yet here comes another inevitable comparison to "Offramp": it has a track that becomes every fan's favorite. "Are You Going With Me?" was the highlight of "'Ramp", and the title track is the highlight of this. However, I'm surprised at this opinion of a lot of people: "'First Circle' is the only good song on this. Everything else is just filler." The title track is by all means a classic, but come on, people. There are plenty of great songs to be had here. Besides, unlike the live version on the band's second live album, "The Road To You", Pedro Aznar almost sounds like he's running out of gas in the middle of the tune. I do love the overdubbed vocals, though, something the live version didn't have. Next up is "If I Could", a sweet jazz ballad in the tradition of Pat's more hardcore jazz albums. Like I said, the variety here is amazing.
You can hear how many of PMG's later albums borrowed so many elements from this. The tense and swingin' avant-jazz of "Tell It All" was obviously influential on later tense and swingin' avant-jazz PMG songs like "Proof" and "Place in the World" from "Speaking of Now". That's what makes "Tell It All" such a special song, and the perfect newcomer avant-jazz epic: it's surprisingly catchy, rhapsodic, and metaphysically complex. You don't get that with a lot of those types of songs, and I love the glockenspiels/bells in the beginning and end: "Da-dum. Da-da. Da-dum. Da-da. Dum-dum. Da, da-da!" Ha ha! By the way, I'm lovin' Lyle's solo on that one.
The eclecticism of this stunning album hits its peak with "End of the Game", a smooth, funky jazzer where Pat does a great job at improvising, and just when you think the song resolves when the cadens come in, it doesn't. It almost feels like a lounge you'd hear on a space station. Unlike some efforts, it rarely seems like Pat is taking up all the solos here: he's taking a lot, but he's also letting everybody take form, including the amazing Steve Rodby, a perpetually humble yet supple bassist. Aznar is showcased brilliantly, and sings his fanny off on one of the most heartfelt ballads I've ever heard, "Mas Alla (Beyond)". I read the translation of the poetry, and it's deep, man. Aznar is not only a great musician and singer, he's a poet with a heart of gold. Finally, the poppish "Praise" will have you praising this amazing masterwork for a long time.
Music fans everywhere, if you're just now being exposed to PMG, have this be the first album you pick up. It is one of their most accessible recordings, yet requires you to listen multiple times to hear all the great things that are going on. Catch the fever.
n3ur010g1c gives PMG's "First Circle" a 10...out of 10.
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