Review of Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis ***

Why Should I Rate It Highly If It Doesn’t Make Me Feel Good When I Listen to It?

I’m not telling you that you should not like this album, I am giving my own personal opinion.  Sketches of Spain is indisputably a classic.  However, I can’t say that it suites my taste.  Feel free to completely disagree with me, but in my opinion this is music to fall asleep by, while once every few minutes, Miles contrasts the soup with something spicy that wakes me right up.  In fact, for me it is downright hard not to fall asleep while listening to it.  Sketches makes me think of rich elderly white people falling asleep into their soup dish, as they eat at luxurious restaurants and sip overpriced wine.  It turns my mood to melancholy, and the only occasions I might find such melancholy comforting is perhaps after a dispute with my wife.

I am not going to tell you that Miles Davis wasn’t a good musician though.  He was one of the best.  I love a lot of his music, but this classic isn’t a mood I particularly enjoy.  I don’t enjoy A Kind of Blue much either.  So, basically what I am getting that is Miles Davis is not one of those musicians that you can say, “If it is Miles, then it has got to be good.”  Writing that makes me think that it would cause anger to a fan of sophisticated music from another generation.  To a certain extent, I can empathize with such an attitude, as I could say the exact same thing about Dream Theater.  Dream Theater is about as talented as Miles Davis was, definitely in the same league, but as I listen to Miles such thoughts make me imagine someone from an older generation frowning upon me, resulting in even more melancholy on my part.

I will say this, anyone who disputes whether or not Miles Davis was a master of the instrument is completely out of their mind, and as such I imagine some people will read my review of this album and think that I am completely out of my mind for not falling in love with it.  One of the things I love about Sketches of Spain is that when Miles Davis plays his trumpet, my cat’s ears perk up.