Black Sabbath-Technical Ecstasy.
This album gets a lot of hell, from Sabbath fans, and music critics alike. Why? I really fail to see people's problem with this classic album. Technical Ecstacy, released in 1976, at a time of growing pressure, Sabbath had just released their so-called "Masterpiece", Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and were expected to come back with an album in the same vein as SBS, fans were shocked however when 1975's Sabotage was released, as it contained some extended numbers, and a re-soundedly 'Proggy' atmosphere. The next release, would shock global Sabbath fans, Technical Ecstacy, but I don't see why it's hated.
#1:Back Street Kids.
This is a familiar sound for Sabbath, and accumulatively, not the sound of this album as a whole. It is a great album opener, a real hard rocker, and has some nice instrumentation. The lyrics arenn't particularlly good, but as anything to do with Sabbath, it's all about emotion and not the lyrics. A great track, with good variation in central instruments.
4/5.
#2:You Won't Change Me.
This is a toughie, to be quite honest. If you are a fan of Yes, Pink Floyd, ELP, or Genesis, then this woul dbe rigth up your street, and seeing as I am, I love it! But it's understandable as to why Sabbath fans were slightly annoyed at the band, with their departure from heavy metal and arrival at, almost space-aged atmospheric Prog Rock, as this track is synth-driven. It's a slow burner, but all in all a good song.
4/5.
#3:It's Alright.
This, like many other Sabbath style ballads, is very slow, and dare I say,a slight sentimental. It's driven by Bill Ward's vocals, and his driving drum-beat. It's again, slightly Proggy, but I couldn't imagine the album without it. It gets quite heavy towards the end with more of a guitar bass and drum led influence. A great song.
4/5.
#4:Gypsy.
Deffinitley a stand-out. This track starts off with Bill Ward's bombastic drumming, and is interupted by Tony Iomi's blasting power-chord riffing. Ozzy's vocals pierce all of this, coming together in a great musically mixture. For this track (and Dirty Women) Sabbath seemed to have gone back to classic style, which is bassically riffing, allthough there is a great instrumental break half way through.
5/5.
#5:All Moving Parts (Stand Still).
This always sounded like a Spinal Tap song to me, it's a great song anywho, with a clear blues influence. I like this song a lot, and it remained my favourite song off the album for a long time, again, Sabbath return to their roots with some bombastic style blues riffage courtesy of the fretboard wizzards.
4/5.
#6:Rock 'N' Roll Doctor.
The name, as it suggests, is pretty much a Kiss song, it has a cool driving beat to it, but I can never really take a lot of the lyrics seriously, musical wise, it's great, but I just don't like the cheesiness of it all "I went to see a rock 'n roll docta'! I gotta see him! See him today! He gonna blow me away!". Deffinitley a low point in an otherwise good album.
3.5/5.
#7:She's Gone.
A haunting ballad, possibly the softest of all Sabbath ballads (And we've all heard Changes, right?). This song has some very heartfelt lyrics, maybe which reflect on real-life experiences. Anywho, this is a violin led song, and doesn't have (any?) guitar in it at all. So for all you hard rockers, this is a no go. Otherwise a good song.
3.4/5.
#8: Dirty Women.
Woot! Dirty Women, for me, get's the prestigious "best song off this album" spot. As with a few other numbers, this is a hard-blues-rocker. Through and through. A fantastic song, with a really fun guitar part. Deffinitley my favourite.
5/5.
So there you have it, Technical Ecstacy.
