Larry Norman - Instigator: The Essential

Thursday 1st January 2004
Larry Norman - Instigator: The Essential
Larry Norman - Instigator: The Essential

STYLE: Jesus Music
RATING 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 8390-8132
LABEL: Solid Rock SRD771
FORMAT: CD Album
RRP: £15.99

Reviewed by Dougie Adam

25 tracks have been crammed on here, many of them from Larry’s halcyon era spanning from ‘Upon This Rock’ in 1969 to ‘Something New Under The Son’ recorded in 1977. Eight of the songs are released in their radio promo single edit format for the first time on CD and the ‘Something New Under The Son’ tracks benefit from losing some of the extended instrumentals, great fun though they are. With the ‘Upon This Rock’ tracks many are the Capitol radio edits, so while many of the songs have been heard before there are just about enough rarities here to keep the collectors happy. Many of the songs here rank as some of Larry’s best album tracks (excepting the opening “Lonely Boy” from the lacklustre ‘Home At Last’) but the choices here will not be as well known as those featured on ‘Agitator’ (and given a perfect 10 out of 10 rating by Tony Cummings a few issues ago). Nonetheless ‘Instigator’ is well worth getting hold of and yet again flows very well (seems like Solid Rock are now hitting the mark when it comes to compilations – for those of you who remember some of the Phydeaux efforts from the ‘80s have no fears about the Essential series). The most interesting tracks are the final two, “Butterfly” and “Kulderachna” which were both recorded for ‘So Long Ago The Garden’ and removed from the album by the record company. Both tracks in their ‘Instigator’ incarnations are rough mixes rather than final versions but you can imagine that with a few harmonies added, some more guitar from Mickey Keen and maybe some strings on “Butterfly” that these would hold their own with the other ‘Garden’ tracks. “Kulderachna” is a sister song to “Looking For The Footprints” and shares a similar Arabic feel and probably goes further down this road with strange and foreign sounding lyrics high in the mix (not unlike “Children Of Nimrod” from 1994).

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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Sample Track Listing:
1. Lonely Boy [Listen]
2. Born To Be Unlucky [Listen]
3. Moses In The Wilderness [Listen]
4. Hard Luck, Bad News (single Version) [Listen]
5. Walking Backwards Down The Stairs [Listen]
6. Pardon Me (single Version) [Listen]
7. Soul Survivor [Listen]
8. Looking For The Footprints [Listen]
9. Baroquen Spirits (single Version) [Listen]
10. I Don't Believe In Miracles (single Version) [Listen]
11. Sigrid Jane (shorter Version) [Listen]
12. I Am A Servant (single Version) [Listen]
13. Nothing Really Changes (single Edit) [Listen]
14. Stong Love, Strange Peace [Listen]
15. Ha Ha World [Listen]
16. Forget Your Hexagram [Listen]
17. Feeling So Bad (single Euro Edit) [Listen]
18. Let That Tape Keep Rolling (single Version) [Listen]
19. I Think I Love You [Listen]
20. With A Love Like Yours [Listen]
21. Up In Canada ('73 Single Version) [Listen]
22. Lonely By Myself (single Version) [Listen]
23. Christmastime (shorter Single Edit) [Listen]
24. Butterfly (unreleased Studio Recording) [Listen]
25. Kulderachna (unreleased Studio Recording) [Listen]

This track data is supplied by the Cross Rhythms CD/DVD review library. Please note that CD tracks may vary according to release region or product version.

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