Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still Sounds Good To Me, 4 Mar 2007
A third purchase of "Third" !!!
I first bought it on vinyl when it came out, the initial CD issue, and now this which must be the definitive sonic upgraded edition,
with the bonus of the Royal Albert Hall Proms gig. Now all I need is a DVD of this gig which was shown once on BBC "Omnibus" !
Facelift sounds louder and punchier, Slighty All The Time is clearer and more detailed, Robert's "Moon" even more effecting
and Out-Bloody-Rageous just about sums it all up. Out-bloody-rageously amazing, 37 years later.
No true Softs fan should be without it. A perfect place for any new listener to start.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Discovery, 20 April 2007
Although I'm a longstanding Robert Wyatt fan, I always struggled to get to grips with Soft Machine, mainly due to a negative experience with a live album of theirs circa 1990. Finally after further reading on the subject of Mr Wyatt I decided to go out and buy `Third'. What a fanastic revelation this album has been to me.
Four songs, each clocking in at 20 minutes or so, each different in it's own way. There is a certain groove to this album. At any one point it can serve as the perfect accompaniment to any particular mood that you might be in. Rock, jazz, folk, soul - curiously it's all here, wrapped up in a package that seems utterly progressive but is in fact so much more.
After listening to this I was fascinated by the roles each of the band perform(ed). Mike Ratledge is an absolute enigma on keyboards, a man who apparently epitomised the surge towars jazz that led Wyatt to leave, but at the same time was so crucial to the sound on this album -their crowning achievement.
Wyatt's contribution - `Moon in June' is unique. Twenty minute songs were obvioulsy de rigeur in 1970, but this one is different - it's chatty, heartfelt, whimsical, an absolute joy. No wonder he was frustrated that he couldn't do a bit more of this. However, if there are four band members, and four sides to an album, then getting one of them could be seen as democratic.
`Slightly All The Time' and `Out-bloody-rageous' plough a similar furrow - keyboards settling into a groove, and Elton Dean's saxaphone blowing with purpose. The music ebbs and flows, sweeping you away and then easing back again for tranquil/ambient passages. The only track I haven't listened to so much is Hugh Hopper's `Facelift' which occupies side one. It has dissonant and dark overtones and maybe qualifies as a grower !!
Great band, great music - from what I've read, Wyatt was glad to be out of it and Ratledge slowly stagnated as the band slowly became more obtuse. I bought `Fourth' on the strength of this one and, to these ears, it's not a patch on `Third'. A landmark album.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius never fades, 17 April 2007
I heard this in 1970. Few albums have stayed with me in quite the way this one has. I was an impressionable 13 yr old with an older brother who introduced me to the wonders of rock music and along the way bought this to my attention. It is an absolutly unique album that sounds as amazing today as it did then. Facelift's opening organ solo creeps up like a creature from another planet and bursts into full band blowing. Slightly All The Time is a jazz-rock symphony, Moon In June shows Wyatt at his most extensivly weird and Out Blood Rageious finds Ratledge at his most facinating, incorporating his Terry Riley inspired tape delay experimentations sandwiched between jazz riffing wonderment. This, together with Terry Riley's 'A Rainbow In Curved Air' remains one of my all time desert island discs. It has opened me up to so much great music as a result, but has also proved to be a peerless achievement. This particular version of The Softs only managed to survive a short time, but the legacy of 'Third' is unquestionable. It is not simply jazz,rock, or avante garde experimentation. It is a unique sonic experince that has never really been matched by anyone scince. Buy it and treasure it. You will not be disapointed.
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