The 1981 Listening Post - Polyrock - Changing Hearts

Polyrock - Changing Hearts 

#3

January 1 1981

Polyrock

Changing Hearts

Genre: Glass Rhythms

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Changing Hearts

Mean Cow

Requisite 80s cover: The Beatles’ “Rain”. A completely unnecessary and uninteresting vserson to close out an album that runs out of steam. 

This is what it sounds like if Philip Glass was the keyboardist for The Cars and was able to wrest control from Ocasek. 

The only problem being that Glass wouldn’t have allowed Ric (Or Roy Thomas Baker) to produce is so it sounds like mud. 

Otherwise, this is a neat sophomore record to the highly danceable first record. A lot more herk to jerk. 

On the heels of, say, Bow Wow Wow, this really suggests that Philip Glass knew where the wind was blowing (i.e “Quiet Spot”). He just let it blow him to the Brooklyn Academy of Music instead. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/changing-hearts/939755125

The 1980 Listening Post - Polyrock - Polyrock

Polyrock - Polyrock

#202

1980 Housekeeping

Polyrock

Polyrock

Genre: Did you know Philip Glass was in a “rock” band????

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

This Song

Go West

Yes. Philip Glass produced and played keyboards on this synth-wave art rock project and, considering his middling entry into pop music a couple years later, it’s astounding to me that it is as listenable as it is. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love about 25% of Koyaanisqatis, all of Thin Blue Line, 20% of Glass Works and 30% of Songs From Liquid Days.

I could never get through Einstein on the Beach or much of his later work and I used to mock his incessant triplitting. 

I had to endure a 3 hour Alexander Technique class set to his music in a Soho loft. It’s very possible that this class was 1 hour long, however. 

That said, this is exactly where Glass belongs. In a New Wave band with angular herky jerky rhythms. There’s not “great” here but none of it is terrible. It’s all very heady and works for certain moods and milieus. I think I hear his influence most on “No Love Lost”. 

While it gets really repetitive (duh…Glass..) it’s easily my favorite whole work of his. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/polyrock/933400977