#0083: Love - Da Capo [*]

At 36 minutes, this is a very short album and while that's not particularly noteworthy considering the period, I mention it now, cuz it'll be important later.  Consider it the Chekhov's Gun of album reviews.  Pretentious?  Certainly, but then so is this poor excuse of a long player that plays fast and recklessly loose with the definition of long.

I've given it a star, which tells you there is something positive I can say about it. The flute and the harpsichord are, at times, phenomenal.  They're not sitting on top of much, but they're good enough to cause a lapse, however brief in the feelings of frustration the initial 6 tracks evoke.

They're so short but nevertheless create an air of being too long.  If your song runs 1:18 then you have a choice.  Either develop your idea properly or let it stand as is.  There is a veritable fuck-tonne of short tracks that demonstrate the effectiveness of their interlude-approaching brevity.  I intend to check this list out when I have more time.  Most of the songs on it I've never heard and I'm more than slightly miffed that neither of the qualifying songs on Prince's Parade made the cut but the very existence of this list is proof of my point.  There's nothing wrong with a short song.

They may have felt a certain obligation to breach the 3 minute boundary for the sake of radio play and the wildly ambitious notion that one of these quasi-baroque mincettas* will give them a hit.  That's more likely, perhaps, than my other theory, which is that without the needless repetition, the total running time would downgrade the release to an EP.

Too often these people miss the mark with a poor choice of singer or by.jamming out a riff for too long and if the first 6 tracks didn't teach you that, then get a load of side 2.  

For those who like jokes that hinge on some implicit mental arithmetic taking place, the running time so far is just over 17 minutes with one track remaining.

That's right, the final song is longer than all the previous tracks put together.  Oh my tormented soul!  What manner of heathen torture is this?!  

Y'know "Da Capo" is a musical term, which literally translated is "from the beginning" and they certainly seem to be living up to that over and over again in this hideous extended jam of an unchanging chord sequence so impotent I would struggle to justify referring to it as a vamp let alone a progression.  The singer attempts increasingly ambitious lines, which fail embarrassingly.  And there is nothing at the end to conclude the song, nothing to suggest this section took us anywhere or had a destination in mind. Its only purpose was to extend the running time.

To Thirty.  Six.  Minutes.[**] 



[*] - mincetta (p. min-chetta) n. - a short piece of music, not necessarily instrumental that is a vague composite of styles; part one, part another, but all mince.
[**] - there isn't an emoji for "derisive sneer" but if there was, this'd be where you'd find an apt usage