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| Audience - House on the Hill Band: Audience Tracks: - Jackdaw - You're Not Smiling - I Had a Dream - Raviole - Nancy - Eye to Eye - I Put a Spell on You - House on the Hill - Indian Summer A curio that belongs on anybody's Top Ten All-Time List Between 1969 and 1972, the four members of Audience recorded Five albums with varying ranges of brilliance and creativity. "House" is their best, and a sure proof of the difference a great producer can make. Gus Dudgeon produced three of Audience's LPs before leaving to craft Elton John's best works, including "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". For those totally unfamiliar with Audience, try listening to "Love Lies Bleeding/Funeral For A Friend" and imagine a full album of that sort of thing. Led by Dudgeon, singer/guitarist Howard Werth and Keith Gemmel on sax and flute, Audience reached a level of innovation on "House on the Hill" that sublimely characterized that magical era of music production in the late 60s and early 70s, a period perhaps unmatched for creativity by any other in history. Many bands of the time drew heavily on jazz, classical, old Renaissance era themes and structures (Rick Wakeman, Yes, Traffic) to create great music, but nobody topped Audience's achievment with "House on the Hill". I don't think anybody has since, either. The album is built around the songwriting of Werth and bassist Trevor Williams, with a brilliant collboration between Werth and Gemmel on a paragon of gritty Love story called "You're Not Smiling". Perhaps my personal favorite, though, is the only non-original on the album; their rendition of "I Put A Spell On You" still generates goosebumps and an inner churning that's hard to nail down, nearly 30 years later. The title cut, "Indian Summer", I Had A Dream", "Raviole" and "Jackdaw" are all the kind of songs that would justify the cost of a CD all by themselves. Put them on one album and you have a classic. Oddly, these brilliant musicians broke up for good before making any kind of mass-market imprint, and never played together again. In fact, they played very little individually, showing up occasionally on relatively obscure British albums, never really making a mark. Dudgeon went on to be a producing superstar. In the mid-70s he produced an album called "Howard Werth and the Moonbeams", which I have not heard. Someday I will find it; until then I will just hold out hope that it comes even halfway to reaching the benchmark the ensemble set with "House on the Hill". A Group Named Audience Audience was a terrific Band from the end of the sixties genre (early seventies). House on the Hill and Lunch are some of the greatest albums from this period. Audience was somewhat like Jethro Tull, but very unique in their sound. Both albums contain great music and lyrics. Your Not Smiling, Indian Summer, Nancy, on Hill and Stand By the Door, Ain't the Man You Need, Trombone Gulch and Buy Me an Island, on Lunch. Also on Lunch the song, In Accord, is a great-intertwined tale of Love and music. If you like classic rock music then this album is worth buying. I agree that It Brings a Tear should have remained. Also the vinyl song order was there for a reason (Gus Dudgeon, Producer). It is nice to read the other reviewers comments and to know that I was not alone in my enjoyment of Audience's music. I wish someone would / could build a web site on Audience like they have done for Wishbone Ash. Does anyone from the Elektra Records label know what happen to the band's members? Audience's originality and talent is spell-binding! While in high school in the early 70's, I managed to scrape up enough money from odd jobs to support my music habit. I bought this album after hearing the song "Indian Summer", which played for a short time on FM radio. After dropping needle-to-vinyl, I sat back and was stunned by the music coming out of my speakers. Each song had an incredible intensity, and the combination of classical guitar and sax/flute backed by a hard-driving rhythm section (Trevor Williams knew how to make a bass growl!) was beyond unique. I was so impressed, I actually ran out and bought another copy of the album, just in case something happened to the first one! Seriously, if you didn't catch these guys the first time around, and are replacing your old record collection with CD's (like I'm in the process of doing), do yourself a BIG favor and pick this one up. This is one of the most innovative British bands from the early 70's that you'll ever have the Pleasure to hear. Guaranteed!!! Buy Audience House On The Hill at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.comJamster - the latest ringtones for your phone! |
