Don't be fueled by the (balling) album artwork and track names, which fit the theme of a medieval epic. You're getting anything but a boring, heavy-handed medieval drama here. It is medieval only by the fact Return To Forever employed some use of baroque music throughout. Each track is a lengthy journey into jazz, breakbeats, electronic, metal and good old fashioned rock 'n' roll that any dad could be proud of. The funky opening track "Medieval Overture" sets the tune for what you're going to receive throughout this album. It starts off with a strange syncopated beat and rhythm, flows straight into flawless sounding guitar work, and eventially breaks off into the spacy unknown. Using the guitars in away only 80s musicians could, they craft an ominous, villainous sound at one point, a drippy computery tone at another, and something that I could only imagine to be the background music to a Speed Racer cartoon at other points. The funk's undeniable and you can draw parallels between the structure of tracks like "Sorceress," which employs actual jazz instrumentals (pianos and all that good stuff), with any archaic jazz. "Sorceress" stands out to me as the track where Return To Forever best demonstrate their jazz tendencies, with tunes that remind me of classic rnb, salsa and even early dnb. There is a lot of everything in "Sorceress," but this undeniable jazz fusion at it's core, with the guitar moving the track along at a smooth yet upbeat pace. This is the kind of jazz fusion perfection that even modern technical guitarists strive for (look at Animals As Leaders' Tosin Abasi) and its a sound that has surprisingly aged well despite the fact that elements that it used have not.
The guitar is so essential to the album, and it's what propels it into all its well deserved glory. It can restrain itself for a jazzy interlude but for most of the album its being played into oblivion, in a style that puts most metal musicians of the same era to shame. Part of what makes the guitar so enticing is the level of technical prowess. The almost robotic precision and speed with which each riff is played astounds me, and it's not your average dadrock-era hair metal thrash crap either. Instead, RTF provides you with a sound that has pizzazz and flair. It's not rebel without a cause rock where the dude is slapping the guitar with his palm. Instead, it's carefully constructed jazz and rock melodies, through expert use of the fretboard, meant to literally make love to your ears. The music almost seems to tell a story, albeit a very spacey and funky one. Can anyone say David Bowie starring in Knights of the Round Table? But despite all this, Romantic Warrior remains at it's core damn good rock music. Jazz fusion is the basically the definition of aesthetically pleasing music, in which everything fits together and it's pretty and it's engaging. That's one word to describe this album: engaging.
The length of each piece meant there was boundless opportunities for Return To Forever to tell stories and exhibit their repertoire. The final track "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant" stands at 11:23 minutes long and demonstrates exactly what jazz fusion is. It starts with a funky, almost loungeish melody and gradually introduces the guitar, which fills that lounge with adrenaline and raises the intensity of the piece. This is the battle of the jester and the tryant! Soon we're invited to more mellow guitars and the other hero of the album: the electric keyboard, manned by Chick Corea. His keyboarding introduces me into a world somehwat akin to a video game. One can only imagine what the mind of Mr. Corea is like. He stands proudly with the guitarist and lets his heart into the keys, and even though its ultimately the guitar that steals the show, he provides a backbone in every track that is undeniably amazing. The use of electronic music throughout the album is what makes this an borderline danceable disco banger. Drawing upon the musical fads of the 70s, the electric wa-was and squeaks and squeals occasionally make you feel like you're walking through Chicago in bell bottom jeans, sporting an afro. The erratic, yet controlled nature with which jazz fusion crosses between the two genres make the album all the more seamless. Everything is kept moving along at a smart and fast pace.
Jazz fusion's, as well as this album's, strengths lie in it's technicalities. Yet there is still some great emotion to this album, such as the moments of baroque, or when RTF crafts their sounds and instruments to make a more futuristic representation of traditional medieval age music. This is one of the most fantastic sounding albums I have ever heard in a long time, and it's extremely well produced. The sound isn't something you would hear today, but it had definitely sown the seeds that would blossom into a lot of today's technical rock and jazz. The album itself heavily drew on actual jazz, and now it joins the cycle. Standing on it's own however, this album is an extravagant affair that works on all fronts, and is literally a jazz fusion opera. What if all 'rock operas' had been like RTF's and the other architects of jazz fusion? I know I absolutely despised Tommy (by The Who) and it could've stood some of that Romantic Warrior magic. It had everything you needed: funky piano and a guitar that literally sounds like a saxophone is even present in the titular track "The Romantic Warrior." Everything on the album is terrific and this is an absolutely essential listen among any genre.
I could harp on and on about this work and it's many aspects but the one thing that stood out most to me was that this band's sound basically embodies a perfect blend essential to jazz fusion. Wikipedia describes the genre as one "that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock music, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations, often using wind and brass and displaying a high level of instrumental technique." This better describes than this whole review sound provided here. I have often talked about variation in things like experimental and folk music, but with jazz fusion you have a sort of controlled variation in which the music bounds within set limits and draws heavily on what's inside these limits rather than being totally batshit crazy. As I've stated before, this is all about instrumental technique. I can also say these guys must have been absolutely crazy live, as much of this music is basically a bunch of extremely professional solos mixed together into one cohesive bastion of technical skill.
I often find myself at a loss to describe this work because I know so little about the sound. I've just thrown a lot of buzzwords at you this whole time but let me just stress to you that you should listen to this. It's an amazing work and one that makes 11 minute long tracks sound short and sweet due to the variation of music. This is undoubtedly the first 10/10 of this blog, and it's deservedly so. It made older generation rock music actually enticing to me! Wow!!
10/10-perhaps you may not agree this is 10/10, but going any less than 9.5, for me, would be doing this an injustice. You don't need to have a completely abstract sound to be truly great, as commercial as this music may sound to some, it is the best damn commercial sound I've heard in a long time. And this was produced back in the 70s.
Edit: 7/21/2013 - I have bumped this down to a 9/10, as upon some relistening I realized I was far too enamored with it. Most point still stand, but I do not consider this a perfect record, as I was so naive to do back when I wrote this. Still an essential recommendation for music lovers.
The length of each piece meant there was boundless opportunities for Return To Forever to tell stories and exhibit their repertoire. The final track "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant" stands at 11:23 minutes long and demonstrates exactly what jazz fusion is. It starts with a funky, almost loungeish melody and gradually introduces the guitar, which fills that lounge with adrenaline and raises the intensity of the piece. This is the battle of the jester and the tryant! Soon we're invited to more mellow guitars and the other hero of the album: the electric keyboard, manned by Chick Corea. His keyboarding introduces me into a world somehwat akin to a video game. One can only imagine what the mind of Mr. Corea is like. He stands proudly with the guitarist and lets his heart into the keys, and even though its ultimately the guitar that steals the show, he provides a backbone in every track that is undeniably amazing. The use of electronic music throughout the album is what makes this an borderline danceable disco banger. Drawing upon the musical fads of the 70s, the electric wa-was and squeaks and squeals occasionally make you feel like you're walking through Chicago in bell bottom jeans, sporting an afro. The erratic, yet controlled nature with which jazz fusion crosses between the two genres make the album all the more seamless. Everything is kept moving along at a smart and fast pace.
Jazz fusion's, as well as this album's, strengths lie in it's technicalities. Yet there is still some great emotion to this album, such as the moments of baroque, or when RTF crafts their sounds and instruments to make a more futuristic representation of traditional medieval age music. This is one of the most fantastic sounding albums I have ever heard in a long time, and it's extremely well produced. The sound isn't something you would hear today, but it had definitely sown the seeds that would blossom into a lot of today's technical rock and jazz. The album itself heavily drew on actual jazz, and now it joins the cycle. Standing on it's own however, this album is an extravagant affair that works on all fronts, and is literally a jazz fusion opera. What if all 'rock operas' had been like RTF's and the other architects of jazz fusion? I know I absolutely despised Tommy (by The Who) and it could've stood some of that Romantic Warrior magic. It had everything you needed: funky piano and a guitar that literally sounds like a saxophone is even present in the titular track "The Romantic Warrior." Everything on the album is terrific and this is an absolutely essential listen among any genre.
I could harp on and on about this work and it's many aspects but the one thing that stood out most to me was that this band's sound basically embodies a perfect blend essential to jazz fusion. Wikipedia describes the genre as one "that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock music, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations, often using wind and brass and displaying a high level of instrumental technique." This better describes than this whole review sound provided here. I have often talked about variation in things like experimental and folk music, but with jazz fusion you have a sort of controlled variation in which the music bounds within set limits and draws heavily on what's inside these limits rather than being totally batshit crazy. As I've stated before, this is all about instrumental technique. I can also say these guys must have been absolutely crazy live, as much of this music is basically a bunch of extremely professional solos mixed together into one cohesive bastion of technical skill.
I often find myself at a loss to describe this work because I know so little about the sound. I've just thrown a lot of buzzwords at you this whole time but let me just stress to you that you should listen to this. It's an amazing work and one that makes 11 minute long tracks sound short and sweet due to the variation of music. This is undoubtedly the first 10/10 of this blog, and it's deservedly so. It made older generation rock music actually enticing to me! Wow!!
10/10-perhaps you may not agree this is 10/10, but going any less than 9.5, for me, would be doing this an injustice. You don't need to have a completely abstract sound to be truly great, as commercial as this music may sound to some, it is the best damn commercial sound I've heard in a long time. And this was produced back in the 70s.
Edit: 7/21/2013 - I have bumped this down to a 9/10, as upon some relistening I realized I was far too enamored with it. Most point still stand, but I do not consider this a perfect record, as I was so naive to do back when I wrote this. Still an essential recommendation for music lovers.
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