LINK: Land of the midnight sun
01. The wizard
02. Land of the midnight sun
03. Sarabande from violin sonata in B minor
04. Love theme from picture of the sea
05. Suite golden dawn
06. Short tales of the black forest
However, it's also amazingly difficult to resist calling an album perfect because of a fear you're going to be labelled as a "fanboy" (as the kids today would say).
Land of the Midnight Sun does a *magnificent* job combining rock with an assortment of different genres. I hear blues, soul, funk, classical, jazz, and of course, rock & roll.
The powerful images this kind of music puts inside of my head are that of different countries and continents around the world such as many locations in southeast Asia, the frozen deserted land of Antarctica, and the jungle environments scattered all around Africa. This music takes me *everywhere* and never loses its impact. I really mean it when I say "never" too. Never once was I bored while listening to Land of the Midnight Sun.
Simply put, Land of the Midnight Sun comes very very close to being one of the best albums of 1976. If it wasn't for Elton John's Blue Moves, I might just knight THIS album "king of the 70's".
This is what you call sophisticated jamming done with passion, energy, emotion and complexity. There's so much feeling and melody in each of these jams that it's simply *frightening* that only 20-some people have bothered writing a review for it here on amazon. A catastrophe it hasn't been rediscovered decades later and connected to a loyal fan following among the younger crowd.
"The Wizard" is unlike anything I've ever heard. A REALLY dark rhythm sets the pace for some really neat jazzy guitar work. Unlike anything out there, perhaps (unless I'm missing something obvious). The title song SOARS to emotionally sad and devastating heights in the way the guitar jam slightly resembles Santana's style but takes it to a whole new meaning of beauty and unexplainable emotional power.
The "Golden Dawn" suite is a brilliant 10-minute adventure through any part of the planet you'd like. I'll leave it at that. Words are impossible to come up with when describing the many shifts and emotions a track like "Golden Dawn" takes anyway, so I won't even bother. Let's just say, jazz rock fans beware- this is quite possibly as good as it gets, and I mean that in the highest compliment imaginable.
Just astonishing. Land of the Midnight Sun is anything you want it to be. Everyone will get something different out of a masterpiece like this, I guarantee it. Give the complexity time to settle in and you'll be a fan of Al Di Meola for life.
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