Fire Garden
As I have said before, I am a Vai fan.
Release: 1996
Ok, so this album consists of two "Phases." Phase one takes place from the opening track There's A Fire In The House to Fire Garden Suite. Phase two takes place from Deepness to Warm Regards. The meaning for this is that Steve Vai intended this to be a double album and each phase would be on a seperate CD, but since they brought out the 80 mins CD's at this time he put it on one.
Now I really like this album, it's a personal favorite of mine.
1. There's A Fire In The House: BANG! Heh, cool way to start an album. It's almost taken literally because you hear sirens and stuff. It's unusual but cool. biggrin It then descends into quite a fast paced instrumental, it's a good listen.
2. The Crying Machine: I love this track. I must say it's one of the best songs on the album. I reccomend you listen to it at some point.
3. Dyin' Day: One great track into another. From the acoustic guitar intro to the sweet sounding distortion of Vai's JEM is just dreamy. Very climactic, a great track through and through, a definate must hear.
4. Whookam: Backmasking. The entire track is backwards. And if your're wondering what it says, I checked and it's basically a song of praise for Jesus. Very strange.
5. Blowfish: Catchy, very rhythm orientated track. It's a powerful track, good to listen to, good to groove to.
6. The Mysterious Murder Of Christian Tiera's Lover: Heh, I adore the power of this track. It's basically Vai being a show off on a 7 String guitar. Love it.
7. Hand On Heart: Dreamy. It's a very very well made track as with pretty much all of Vai's 7th songs. It builds up to be very climactic, very Vai. A brilliant listen.
8. Bangkok: The first time I listened to this track was with headphones at night. It scared the HELL out of me. It's creepy! The actual music part of it is a good song though, it's not actually an original oh his though I found out. Runs straight into -
9. Fire Garden Suite: Bull Whip - Basically a continuation of Bangkok, short but makes a right noise in the time it has. Pusa Road - Very Frank Zappa-esque. The lead role in this part is a Sitar, it's very unusual to anyone who listens to Western music a lot. It's basically Vai's interpretation on Indian Classical music which he in fact did more of (see The Ultra Zone album.) Angel Food - My personal favorite of the 'Suite,' very sweet acoustic work with virtuosotic piano. A brilliant mixture. Taurus Bulba - This is where most of you want to be! Heavy, pounding guitar work over Vai's powerful lead. A definate must hear for it's sheer virtuosity of the music.
10. Deepness: The beggining of Phase Two. With that in mind, it's different than if this was just another track on the album. It's unusual with what it is, Vai humming a melody over some guitar chords. Not a definate must hear but it is a good way to start the second Phase.
11. Little Alligator: Ahh, the good old power rock song! Vai shows off his riffing skills and his vocal work. I am a big fan of his and his voice is one of the reasons why. A definate must hear, he named his Volume Pedal after this track (or it may be the other way round.)
12. All About Eve: Ahh the Fernandes Sustainer, a great piece of kit. Very fantastical with the lyrics, I would say this is where Vai is best with his lyrical work. A very very good track and a definate must listen.
13. Aching Hunger: Ok, lemme say one thing now that you would have noticed already if you were listening to this album - There is a wierd electronic voice that says things either before or after some of the tracks. Otherwise this is possibly one of the best tracks on the album solely because of the vocal work, it's very deep and he reaches out to you. It's quite minimilistic at times with just the percussion driving the song at most times. A definate must hear, I remember him using the name for his Orchestral Tour.
14. Brother: Sweet sweet sweet. It's a very mellow and laid back track to listen to with sweet vocal work over very subtle differencing guitar work. Vai proves that all of his tracks deserve merit for being different from each other.
15. Damn You: Heh, this is a right Oh Yeah!! of a track if you know what I mean! Shows it's intention right from the word go. A good track to listen to for Vai's sheer power and his loud vocals. Love it. biggrin
16. When I Was A Little Boy: Um, what the hell? Ok, so Vai must like masturbation a lot! xd ...Please tell me that that voice isn't suppost to be Vai's p***s. eek Clever use of voice whammy though.
17. Genocide: Good drum introduction. I would say this is a good crowd pleaser of a song. It's quite minimalistic in ways of instrumentation though. Still, a very good song. Builds up with more and more instruments coming in however. A good listen, reccomend you check it out.
18. Warm Regards: A very very good way to end an album, making the listener want more. It starts off very sweet with the vocal harmonies and chords, very easy to listen to. A great way to conclude the marvelous collection of songs that is this album.
Now I must say, I ADORE this album. It's a personal favorite of mine, I love every moment of it and even the wierd little masturbation thingy of When I Was A Little Boy. Buy it?
<[Yami]>
