Track Listing

1. The Poison Tree
2. A Little Girl Lost
3. London
4. The Sick Rose
5. The School Boy
6. The Human Abstract
7. The Fly
8. The Divine Image

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70020 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The follow-up to Axelrod's Song Of Innocence also takes its cue from the visions of William Blake, with a similar mix of classical, jazz and funk instrumentation. But, unlike its predecessor, this record carries an undercurrent of melancholic menace. On "The Poison Tree" a shrieking violin suddenly spits through the blanket of feel-good rhythms, while "Little Girl Lost" cries out plaintively with a naive harpsichord melody. "London" opens with a low-end bass smog that lifts at the call of a modish organ to reveal a 1960s hipster spirit with a restless heart. Led by a yearning acoustic guitar riff, "The School Boy" wallows in nostalgia. "The Human Abstract" and "The Fly" return to Axelrod's supercool, prog-jazz signature with amped breaks that ache to be jacked by sample hunter/gatherers. The album ends on an unsettling note with held high notes and strings that pace around like a predator waiting to pounce as Axelrod ponders "The Divine Image". And from the sound of it, he doesn't like what he sees. --Chris Campion

CD Description
The follow-up to David Axelrod's 1968 solo debut, SONG OF INNOCENCE, finds the adventurous Los Angeles-based composer and producer once again riffing on the visionary poetry of William Blake, this time working from the British bard's SONGSOF EXPERIENCE. Appropriately, these eight pieces reflect the writings' weightier themes, as "The Poison Tree" begins the album with a striking sense of urgency generated by busy string and keyboard lines. "London" settles into a slightly foreboding funk section, while "The Sick Rose" is utterly haunting in its relative minimalism. An artist that had fully mastered his sonic palette by this point, Axelrod allows his signature fusion of rock and jazz to mesh with bold orchestral arrangements, hitting a swirling, horn-laden peak during "The Fly". One of the finest examples of Axelrod's singular talent, this record continued a strange, brooding trajectorythat would land him in the darkly beautiful and fascinatingly bizarre realm of his subsequent project, EARTH ROT.

Customer Reviews

Difficult Listening but worthwhile
I bought both 'Songs of....' albums last week and this is my favorite (at a push) although the slightly darker set of the two.

'Songs of Experience' is a short piece of work clocking in at around a half hour, with each song a slight derivative of the last, meaning that this is best served by listening to it from start to finish in one sitting. No one said that this would be easy and makes it a very intense, difficult and haunting experience which needs patience initially but expands on you with each play - without getting too deep - you actually get to understand it a little more.

Musically, the drums still sound so crisp it hurts but, personal taste here, the violin can grip you a little in the ear department and then your mates wander in and give you that 'what the hell are you listening too ? Put some James Brown on ! '

For beat diggers : 'Human Abstract' contains the piano sampled by DJ Shadow on 'Midnight'.

The other album,'Songs of Innocence', contains the break to The Artifacts 'Get down with tha Get Down' and some Fat Joe thing that I care not to remember.

Jazz That William Blake Would Have Felt Honored By
Songs of Experience represents the second half of David Axelrod's musical vision of William Blake's famous Songs.
Whereas the first album on this project, Songs of innocence, is hopeful, daring and overall ambitious, these Songs of Experience, well, experiment. This is a darker album, a different but still quite lyrical and fearless Axelrod, bringing to a masterful close the cycle initiated on his 68' debut, Songs of Innocence.
The compositions, arragenments, and band performance are superb. When you realize that this album was released in 1969, you may begin to appreciate the innovative mind and mature expresiveness that blesses each of these Songs.
Along with its earlier half, a young masterpiece from one of Jazz's great, underecognized talents.