Track listing
- A1 Night Flight
- A2 Maybe It's Just Love
- A3 Crazy Lovers
- A4 Penumbra Moon
- A5 Nearer to You
- B1 A Face in the Crowd
- B2 Suitcase
- B3 I'm Sorry
- B4 It's Not On
- B5 Bedtime Stories
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6 Reviews
The first question Night Flight raises is: why was this album ever made? I guess there were historical reasons, as always, and this time it may have been Justin Hayward's involvement in Jeff Wayne's massive War of the Worlds project. Justin gave his trademark vocal to the song "Forever Autumn", which became a hit, and Mr. Wayne ended up producing his album and writing a couple of songs for it. Hence, it was clear that Night Flight would not consist of Justin's own compositions only; and that may have been why he liked the thought of bringing some other guest or cover material in as well. But... come on. Justin Hayward, who I would name one of the fucking best songwriters ever. In the 1970s, even on a worse day, he might have written better material than "Bedtime Stories" (by Colin Still), which closes the album. I don't even mean that "Bedtime Stories" is specially bad, while none of the tracks on Night Flight is actually bad, it is just confusingly average.
The album was recorded during 1979, so it is no surprise that there is a notable disco influence on a couple of tracks. That is not a bad thing in itself, but the disco-tinged title track (by Jeff Wayne and Paul Vigrass), which opens the album, is not at all one of the best tracks here. The following songs are obviously better, disregarding if they are Justin Hayward originals or not. There are four of those on Night Flight, and every one is either quite good or very good. "It's Not On" (by Wayne and Gary Osborne) is one of the better tracks as well. Eventually, a listener like me must admit that Night Flight is an OK album, much better than average, even better than decent... but still, I am not sure at all why this album had to be made.
The album was recorded during 1979, so it is no surprise that there is a notable disco influence on a couple of tracks. That is not a bad thing in itself, but the disco-tinged title track (by Jeff Wayne and Paul Vigrass), which opens the album, is not at all one of the best tracks here. The following songs are obviously better, disregarding if they are Justin Hayward originals or not. There are four of those on Night Flight, and every one is either quite good or very good. "It's Not On" (by Wayne and Gary Osborne) is one of the better tracks as well. Eventually, a listener like me must admit that Night Flight is an OK album, much better than average, even better than decent... but still, I am not sure at all why this album had to be made.
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Hayward as a slick 'disco boy'. A couple interesting songs among generic fodder.
Published
Definitely has a disco vibe!! Best song: Nearer to You
Published
A lighter, safer version of Songwriter. Basically, Night Flight is more boring than that album. Makes me want to pop in a Moody's album to get the bad taste out of my mouth.
Published
Suitcase is my favourite Justin Hayward solo track. The melody is perhaps not that sophisticated, but the instrumentation and the harmonies (especially the unexpected C7 harmony in one futher chorus) carry the song splendidly through. Notably, he played all the instruments himself on this one. And this seems the best produced solo Hayward, he complained about Jeff Wayne having him reach a hundred takes, but it was ultimately worth it (my favourite trick is the separation of two acoustic guitar picking across the stereo channels in Maybe It's Just Love, hey, that's pretty innovative too. As the other reviewers pointed out, not all the songs are up to the Suitcase standards. Sometimes it is the outside writers who are to blame (I'm Sorry by Hall/Oates is plain hideous) but such a self-penned song as Nearer To You is alsow much below par. Generally the more uptempo and disco-drenched, the worse the track. Apart from Suitcase, the songs I regard as good are Crazy Lovers, Maybe It's Just Love (by Mike Silver) and It's Not On (by Jeff Wayne/Gary Osbourne). Penumbra Moon and A Face in the Crowd are also decent enough. And it's a spine-shivering pleasure to hear Justin Hayward still in strong voice effortlessly reaching the high A note on the title track.
Published
Very uneven, but "Suitcase" and "Crazy Lovers" are great songs
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