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Description
David Gates wrote some of the most melodically refined soft rock songs of the 1970s, and this thirteen-track collection draws almost entirely from that catalog — Make It With You, If, Everything I Own, and ten others, all arranged for solo piano. Bread's songwriting was always centered on Gates' voice and acoustic guitar, which means the piano arrangements carry the melodic and harmonic content of each song without much structural adjustment needed. The classical training behind the playing shows in how carefully the melodic lines are shaped, with a precision and consistency that suits the intimate, lyrical character of the material throughout.
If and Guitar Man are among the most harmonically developed tracks in the set, both songs with more movement in their chord progressions than the simpler ballads around them. Aubrey and Diary sit at the quieter, more open end of the tracklist, both moving slowly with enough space between chord changes to let the melody carry without crowding. Goodbye Girl and Lost Without Your Love represent Gates' later work, and both sit comfortably alongside the earlier material, their melodies translating cleanly to a single instrument.
Suite: Clouds and Rain closes the album as the most structurally ambitious entry — a multi-section piece that covers more harmonic ground than any other track in the collection, and a fitting endpoint for an album that otherwise favors simplicity and restraint. With thirteen tracks drawn from across Gates' career, the album works as both a thorough introduction to his songwriting and a rewarding listen for anyone already familiar with the catalog.
Track List:
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Make It With You - 3:23
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Everything I Own - 3:47
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If - 2:51
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Baby I'm-a Want You - 2:30
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Guitar Man - 3:30
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Aubrey - 3:58
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Goodbye Girl - 2:20
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Lost Without Your Love - 1:49
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It Don't Matter to Me - 2:00
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Take Me Now - 3:24
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Diary - 4:03
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I Can't Find the Words to Say Goodbye - 4:16
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Suite: Clouds and Rain - 8:47
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- Total Runtime - 46:38
