Track Listing

1. Fair Exchange
2. Heavenly Homes
3. Ships In The Night
4. Crying To The Sky
5. Sleep That Burns
6. Beauty Secrets
7. Life In The Air Age
8. Like An Old Blues
9. Crystal Gazing
10. Blazing Apostles
11. Shine
12. Speed Of The Wind
13. Blue As A Jewel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1751 in Music
• Released on: 1991-02-11
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Ambivolent ..
I adored this album as a student in Leeds and loved Be-Bop dearly. But I knew then and knew now that Nelson, whilst a sublime talent, could have done with some editing and some creative co-writing perhaps. Some of the songs on this album are very good indeed, but some collapse under the weight of their chopping and changing, Fair Exchange being one, Blazing Apostles another. The songs aren't that strong that hey can stand so much arbitraty variations in tempo and key. It ain't jazz. It feels like he had fragments of tunes he pieced togather. The best songs are the songs where the internal life and strength of the songs are allowed their course - Beauty Secrets etc. The old adage is so true here - keep it simple. Comparisons have been made by other reviewers to Pink Floyd, but they had the benefit of allowing each other to write and influence each others excesses and pool ideas, leading to more satisfying and better cratfed songs. Nelson's lyrics are pretty inconsequential too. I wish he'd allowed some other creative input to temper his artistic free rein. Naturally I'm still very fond of it all though.

Deluxe Finish
Just to add my tuppence, I agree entirely with all the positive reviews. This is the album to get from this very good 70's group. The quality is 5 star on SunBurst Finish. The music and lyrics are intelligent, witty, powerful and so true.
"Your youth is a mask, that is not made to last"

Bill Nelson voice is at it's peak, he puts meat to the words with his inflections, nuances and pace. My favourite track, if I have to chose just one, is Life In The Air Age. I can relate or could to the hero in the song when I was younger.

The booklet is good, it has an interesting read and has all the lyrics to the album, but not including the bonus tracks though, odd? Not in my opinion as the original album was better as it finished at brilliant point. Good evening Blazing Apostiles can I help you.......

A Quality Album
This is a quality album and along with Modern Music probably in my top fifty favourite albums of all time (i've been around a few years and got quite a large collection!). I saw them live in 1977 and have treasured all their work ever since. I find them hard to categorize. Call it progressive rock if you like with shades of liquorish allsorts. Suffice to say the band members were all very accomplished musicians and created an original sound back in the seventies with amazing variety that still stands up well today. The songs are intricate yet melodic with lyrics both bizarre and astonishing. "Crying to the Sky" has a beautiful guitar solo and "Ships in the Night" I just can't get out of my head. Many commend Bill Nelson as a creative genius. The "Modern Music" album is equally as good as this with mesmerizing sound and variety (but not quite as good an album cover!) Bill Nelson was a great rock guitar player, pity he split Be-Bop up after the "Drastic Plastic" album to explore his musicality. I don't care too much for any of his later solo work.