Daryl Hall - Sacred Songs

'an aesthetic manifestation.......'(!)

'Sacred Songs' is a good title because it's such a good album. With erstwhile old progger Robert Fripp involved, I was expecting 12 versions of 'I Talk to the Wind', but this is a harder music altogether. More edge. I love being surprised by music, and despite the rampant cynicism and seeming lack of optimism in my reviews, I am quite often. That this is such an unlikely collaboration thrills me, and the fact that it works so well, makes the hours wasted wading through other desperate musics, all the more worthwhile.
Mostly it's straightly geetared bluesy rock, with a fair amount of honky-tonk piano, but with enough Fripp flourishes and finesse to lift it far above and beyond the mediocre and mundane limits of that rather confining and over-simplistic genre. Hall's a major talent on his own, but add the seriously disturbed Fripp to the proceedings and you're fast-tracking to a classic.
The diversity of 'SS' is micro-cosomed in the last two songs; 'You Burn Me Up Like A Cigarette' which is a racy, almost punk-like thrash-in-the-r-n-r basement, and the seriously beautiful 'North Star', with it's iron-cable-strong hook and Hall's almost country vocal, making sure the album doesn't fade away at the death. In fact, the stronger songs tend to come towards the end. It's as if they're lying in wait, while the McCartney-esque 'Babs and Babs' and the ambient Frippery of 'Urban Landscape' lull us into a false sense of security, songs like 'Why It Was So Easy' and the astonishing 'Survive' (the standout here, against some top opposition) hit like trains. Their immediacy can't be random, no capitulation to fate. 'SS' reminds overwhelmingly of those superb Ian Hunter solo albums. Constructed around an age-old conceit, but infused with an almost mysterious instinctive; to re-invent and improve. To re-carve something set already in solid granite,(mostly by people MADE of solid granite..(!)) and make new again.
I'd say it was an aesthetic manifestation, if that's not too pompous, but 'SS' is an album that makes you strive for an emotional definition rather than just gushing superlatives. It's precise and triumphant in a celebratory context. You can't be anything but thrilled to bits that you're listening to it.
The Fripp/Hall collaboration,(and I'm SO tempted to call it an 'axis', but that IS too pompous..(!)) is a success, despite any reservations you might have about the musical origins of our two heroes. It's a mature rock work. Intelligent and indecent, and deserving of it's place in that miniscule and even now, ever dwindling cultural canon. July 2, 2008

one star for 30 years

As a huge Fripp fan I purchased this album upon its release. At that time (1980) Hall & Oates grated on my ears - yet if Fripp was involved in this Hall album I felt that I should purchase it - and I did. Upon its release I would have rated it 2 or 2+ stars. But now that it has been released on CD with the bonus tracks; YBMULAC and North Star that I would give it an extra 1/2 star. However, for those of you who have purchased the 2 CD set of Exposure with the extra bonus tracks with Hall on vocals, let me say that you may add another star to this disc because you will see Fripp's vision much better.
So I now rate this CD as 4 stars because it has improved with time. June 14, 2008

Solid 4 Stars

The addition of the Bonus tracks from Robert Fripp's Exposure makes this album a solid 4 stars. IMHO this album is the best work Daryl has ever done solo or otherwise surpassing even Abandoned Luncheonette and Voices. May 30, 2008

UNEXPECTED GLORY

The story behind this album is interesting enough but to hear Hall's Philly Soul tracking across Fripp's wailing guitar is an unexpected listening pleasure. The idea that these two could find common ground is challenging enough-- that it succeeds so brilliantly is a wonderful bonus. March 13, 2008

Sacred??? Damn good anyways

Sacred Songs came out at a eprfect time for me, another Fripp-o-phile. It made PERFECT intersection with Exposure, which (if no one else has mentioned it I certainly will) was just reissued in a double cd set... Exposure V.1 [original] and V.2 [2007 remix +] The '+' of course are additional mixes Darryl did not sing in the original ("Mary" and "Chichago")

It was nice to see this re-packaged and reissued as well. December 2, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...