Can - Future Days (1973)
Final album with Damo Suzuki. Just by listening to this album, you can sense that this will be their final album with him. He tends to be a lot more low key than on previous albums. He then got married and became a Jehovah's Witness. This time, the band becomes more mellow, many times called "ambient". Regardless, this is by far the most pleasant music CAN has ever done, esepcially on the title track and the second half of "Spray". "Moonshake" harkens back to "Tago Mago" (specifically "Halleluwah", except much shorter), and of course the most accessible piece on the whole album. "Bel Air" is the side length cut that starts and ends side two.
This really divided the group. Holger Czukay liked it for the symphonic qualities, while Jaki Liebezeit hated it for those same reasons. A few CAN fans thought it sounded too much like prog rock for their liking, but since I'm a big prog rock fan, it doesn't bother me any. In fact, a lot of it reminds me a lot of that fusion-influenced prog that existed at that time. And while some might complain of it being "too prog", the band still played as an ensemble, so you don't get solos, as the band always avoided them. This song seems to have that feel of being in the meadow, no doubt helped by the sound of chirping birds heard on a small section of the piece. "Spray" starts off as an experiment of percussion, but the second half demonstrates the more mellow nature of the album, with Irmin Schmidt's organ and Damo Suzuki's often unitelligible singing (he sounds like he's singing "It's downtown when it rains" over and over, but he could be singing something else). This certainly sounds very little like anything they've done before (aside from "Moonshake"), and just when you thought you know the band, they gave us "Future Days". A great album, and a definate favorite of mine. CAN Future Days music reviews and MP3 review from progarchives.com
Songs / Tracks Listing
1. Future Days (9:34)
2. Spray (8:28)
3. Moonshake (3:02)
4. Bel air (20:00)
Total Time: 41:04
Line-up / Musicians - Holger Czukay / bass
- Michael Karoli / guitar
- Jaki Liebezeit / drums
- Irmin Schmidt / keyboards
- Damo Suzuki / vocals
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