Possibly the most intense spoken word piece I
have ever heard or expect to ever again hear.
The Phillip Glass-like washes of music build
up the mood to an almost majestical height,
particularly when Hutchins is speaking.
BTW, Hutchens givens some of the most impassioned
speeches against the Iraq war, and the folly
of war in general, that I think it possibly to express in human language. The last track, "Damn
you and all your works", was so much on a higher
plane it pratically brings one to tears. It seems like a classical moment in cinimatic history. I can see someone with the passion of Charlton Heston at the end of "Planet of the Apes" reciting it wedded to the Shakespearean
intensity of a Sir Laurence Olivier. A debate
like no other, on a plane with the Clarence Darrow-William Jennings Bryan skopes monkey
trial, which gets to such a level that it sweeps
all of mankind and his foibles and vices along with it. Good lord, this is great stuff!

what a fantastic idea!

the debate is vigorous, with galloway and hitchens using their considerable experience at political speaking to viciously attack each other over the war in irag, yet the power of the music lives up to it! while i wouldn't put the debate on that often by itself, the cinematic style of the album lends itself perfectly to repeated listening. if only all politicians still had this much passion, and there was an orchestra in parliament!