Anthony Phillips - 1984

It's been a while now since I started again listening to electronic music, mainly progressive electronic. And to my surprise, when yesterday I looked at the old Anthony Phillips collection, suddenly I got hooked up with his unique - one and only - keyboards dominated album, '1984'. Then there I was, hallucinated and tranced with Ant's brilliant melodies, but this time by his stunning keyboard performance. No wonder then I began to wrote this album's review instantly in Progarchives. This is my review :

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I was a bit disappointed when the first time I bought this album, because this is my first Anthony Phillips' album that I bought. At that time, my expectation was that I could enjoy Ant's famous 12-guitar works such as in his other albums. Sadly, from the first minute until the end, all I could hear is keyboards and drum machine percussions !
But, slowly it turned out that the more and more I listened to this album, I could sense and feel the spirit, and most importantly, the beauty of the tracks in it. Starting with 'Prelude 84', a light and cheerful introduction that brings us to the whole mood of the album. Then comes the epic 1984 part 1 and 2, both contain dramatic, mysterious melodies and lovely stunning melodies simultaneously ! If you like Tony Banks' beautiful melodies, you'd be surprised that Ant can also do the same. Forget about the cheap standard synth sounds produced, just concentrate at the melodies, then there you are -- excite into another level of delight.

Without any doubt, I will rate this album 4 stars for the melodies. And honestly plus 0.5 star to my surprise of Ant's keyboard skill.

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Released in 1981, this album coincidently had the same title with Rick Wakeman's album, released in the same year. Both are inspired by George Orwell's novel, 1984, that tells us the cynical story of totalitarianism. It's a good book, though.

PS : appeared in progarchives : https://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=394048