Man, I HATE THIS BAND, but this is really a great record. If you don't like Fleetwood Mac, but are in the mood for something arty and chilled out, this may very well catch you off guard. Some of the bands best songs in a casual atmosphere. I bought the vinyl for 99 cents and it grew on me until I shelled out for the double disc. The 2nd disc with all the bonus stuff is full of good things.

This record rocks. Mainly because Adam Clayton plays bass like Cliff Williams: that relentless dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh... keeps the album movin' ever forward. That's right, AC/DC!!!! Think I'm kiddin' ? Check it out! It's all over the place. Listen to the segue into "Out of Control" , the guy can hardly wait to start pluggin away! Ocassionally he'll start a song with some kinda riff, but by the end, it's back to dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh... again. It works! It rules! And it probably saved them a lotta money on studio tricks ' cause unlike later releases, this album is driven by U2's energy.

As far as them other 2'ers go: the drums sound smackin' and Lillywhitey. The Edge still has one. Bono's vocals are really good , especially 'cause they're mixed down with the rest of the music! He's merely started a landslide in his ego here, it hasn't yet blossomed into a full-on flag-wavin', marchin'-mullet-headed ego yet. And then there's the BELLS! No one is given credit for playing them. They just appear.....on almost every song. How cool. They give Boy a great starry-night-timey feel none of the other albums have.

I saw these dudes live around the time this album came out. They played at Randy's Rodeo in San Antonio , the place where the Pistols played. There were only about 200 people in the audience, but the band were in-flippin'-credible. They definitely had a certain something. Glad I caught'em when I did, 'cause I'm not too crazy about what they later became.More power to y'all who like the later stuff. Must be something there. But this is the one for me. I played it recently for a friend who thought U2 have always totally sucked & he had to admit.............

Imagine my surprise when my wife announced that we were going to New York to see the latest Broadway smash "AGENTS OF FORTUNE"! Finally, someone did this fine album justice and presented it the way it was truly meant to be!
As we stood in line at the theatre, my heart raced. Would the songs be as good as on the album? Would it be better than RENT? Inside, a smelly dude in a Kingfish Trident shirt assured me he'd seen the production ten times, and that it was even better than MAMMA MIA. Of course, I had my doubts.

When the curtain rose, all my concerns were laid to rest as the cast broke into the opening number, "This Ain't the Summer of Love": 30 bikers who all looked like the leather guy from the Village People scooted their shiny new Harleys around the stage in tight formation. Their brand new leather jackets were as shiny as their hogs. As the all male chorus repeated "This ain't The Summer....This ain't The Summer..." chorus for the last time, parking their bikes center stage, and slapping each other on the ass in time with the drums, chills ran up my spine. Absolutely perfect. The numbers kept coming: each one a knockout: "True Confessions" with it's Fonzie piano, "Don't Fear the Reaper" sung by a soprano seated on a pink grain thresher, and the show's highlight, "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", which bore an incredible resemblence to WEST SIDE STORY's "Somewhere", with the male and female leads looking heavenwards, singing "We're gonna swim like the fish".

I don't want to spoil the rest for you, because you MUST see this production for yourselves. Let me just say this: When the hero returns at the end, wearing his dried **** incrusted leather pants, and sings to Debbie Denise, I cried....and I don't cry very often. So forget CHICAGO - theres not enough lingere in the world to save that stinker. And forget CATS.... AGENTS OF FORTUNE is the finest Broadway Musical ever.

I bought this album for 50 cents on Amazon.com & I really like it! I think you may,too. I was reading a lukewarm review of them in an old Select. Although the reviewer was kinda trashing it, it sounded like something I'd like, & sure enough.....very, very good! It's in the Super Blurry Bowie realm. Nice chord changes, lotsa hooks, and gets better with every listen. Like the guy up there said; It won't blow you away, but you may find yourself putting it on again and again.

A concert dedicated to an oncoming comet. How awesome! Besides containing excellent versions of two Sun Ra "hits", if there are such things, "Astro Black" & "Space is the Place", this album has some of Ra's most extraordinary keyboard playing ever. The band is hot. There's an exciting, electric feel to the performance. The music may at first disorient you, but once you give in, it makes perfect sense. This is the sound of the cosmos: Exploding, chaotic and beautiful.

see above

*Attn: DVD buyers! See special feature problems with this Kino DVD release below. Turn off the TV and tune into the Brothers Quay! The use of scavenged materials and cracked dolls, surreal environs, and the bizarre camera work, in addition to the haunting music are unforgettably unique and original. Before all those pretentious art students started using doll heads, there were the Brothers Quay. Before the MTV knock-off videos, their were the original Brothers Quay. Repetition and distortion reoccur in disturbing scenarios that can not fully be explained, nor should they be. In their B/W shorts, it is as though microsopic, hybrid forms have been filmed under a magnifying lens, and we, the voyeurs, are drawn into their obsessive-compulsive world. The brothers pay hommage to Czech animator, Jan Svankmajer (check out his trippy version of "Alice" in Wonderland), but lack his crisp, clear, punch-in-the-face political satire in favor of blurry,dreamscapes of paranoia and non-verbal insanity. What is revealed is a slow, intense inspection of parts: hybrid machines and dolls with human and animal instincts; at once familiar yet frighteningly unfamiliar. Their perception through the camera lens is mind-tweaking with exagerrated depth of field, asymmetrical compositions/montage,and movements in and out of focus. Their atmospheric, equivocal expressions make contemporary digital animation seem gimmicky and expressionless. *Word of warning to DVD buyers and distributors: The DVD distributor, Kino, has advertised Special Features, including a rare interview with the Brothers Quay and their first film. The Special Features of this DVD, unfortunately, cannot be accessed on most DVD players or computers until the company resolves this problem and puts out a new version, which they are evidently looking into (they've received complaints already). There's still lots of goodies without the Special Features, but the inability to acess the interview and first film is disappointing.

Fate stood apart from other metal bands 'cause they, like Sabbath, could lay down those FUNKY METAL GROOVES. And please, just look at & listen to King Diamond; the guy has really gone out of his way to be as abusurd as possible. Thanks to King, the "Melissa" album, besides being one of the most ass-kicking black metal recordings ever, is also the one of the silliest.

"Evil" has DISCO POWER. Curse of The Pharoahs" and "Into the Coven" have SUPERNATURAL POP HOOKS, "Satan's Fall" has a huge collection of GREAT RIFFS and ends right as the supply starts to run low. The title track is hilarious, whichever version you get.

Overall, the songs seem to have a better flow and structure , as well as more intricate/interesting melodies and harmonius instrumentation than other MF releases ( and most black metal, in general ). The music moves side-to-side, more than up-and-down.

Besides doing the usual squeaky demon voices, King Diamond does that neat bellowing thing a lot & the vocals are heavily multitracked, so sometimes you get an entire chorus of little Kings!

Merciful Fate sound like a real band here, with each member having equal input. It also sounds like they've playing together a while; nothing sounds forced. Even though their follow-up "Don't Break The Oath" is more lyrically extreme, it didn't doesn't have the continuity of riffage, nor the warm atmosphere of "Melissa".

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