war of the worlds musical brave new world book

It seems like each time I listen to it I spot a new synth swoosh or percussion rhythm in the background. There is layer upon layer upon layer of tracks in the mix that all pull together to give an incredible rock-solid wall of sound, especially though a decent audio system or good quality headphones.

The original was an incredibly well produced piece of music, but thirty years’ worth of technological advancements mean that the New Generation is on a whole other level. As expected, it has its good points and bad points.

I’ve deliberately left it a while before writing this post so as to give the ‘ New Generation‘ recording some time to sink in and not to be overshadowed by the 30 years of familiarity I have with the original. And the upcoming arena tour of the live show would give me the chance to be the ‘GeekKid’ for a change and take my Dad out for the evening – double bonus that the London date at the O2 was just after his birthday and very close to where he grew up in Greenwich. However, given that it was still in the hands of the original creator, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. How many ‘reboots’ have we seen recently and how many of them have been travesties? There have been many cover versions and remixes of the various tracks over the years and none of them can really be said to have improved upon the originals. When I first heard that Jeff Wayne wanted to record a new version of it, I was was very worried to say the least. I’ve listened to the album so many times over the last 30+ years – for me it’s one of those pieces of music that you know every riff, key change and drum fill in and I cannot stop singing/air-guitaring/air-drumming along to it. It first came out just after Star Wars, and the two of them definitely shaped my childhood and got me into science fiction – I think the novel was one of the first sci-fi books that I read as a kid. Wells’ classic sci-fi novel, The War of the Worlds. Does that word scare or excite you? Back at the end of the ’70s, it did both for me as I listened over and over again to my Dad’s LP of Jeff Wayne’s original prog-rock epic interpretation of H.G.

War of the worlds musical brave new world book