Based around the nucleus of German based
guitarist Rudi Buttas who has been together for more than twenty years with
the succesful German band PUR, it became obvious that this his solo album is a
commercially intended album resulting in larger than life AOR. One of the
production secrets is to open an album with what they call an ‘in your
face’ song followed with one or two more rhythmic songs in a slightly
similar style. Only with the fourth track can you slow down a little. This is
exactly what happens here and the more I listen to the concept the more I have
to think of yet another German project namely Mandoki. Another sign of a
commercial approach is the fact that an extra sticker informs us that no less
than five songs are sung by Saga vocalist Michael Sadler, information which is
already printed on the front of the sleeve as well. Knowing how popular Saga
still is in Germany this looks indeed like a marketing ploy rather than the
fact that Buttas really likes Sadler’s voice. Also American Michelle Young
lends her Bush-like vocals to the material and one of the nicest examples can
be found in the splendid, long, ‘Peter Pan’ which not only holds some
great harmonies between Young and Sadler but also a wonderful guitarsolo
courtesy of Rudi Buttas. A song like ‘Fly’ is the kind of music
you’d expect during a eurovision songcontest sounding very thin and
predictable. The song is being sung by David Hanselmann who used to be the
singer with Triumvirat (later stage) and was being discussed as a possible new
singer for no less than Genesis way back in 1975. Listening to what he does
here one can only thank his lucky stars that the Genesis move never
materialized ! Michelle Young tries as hard as she can to really impress yet
the song ‘Harder day’ sounds a bit too much like another weak Bonnie Tyler
output. Newcomer Jochen Schild tries his hand at the soft reggae of ‘In
concert’ slightly reminding me of the singer of Belgian band Ken’s Novel.
I really like the instrumental ‘Just pink friends’ which, needless to say,
borrows a lot from Gilmour and ‘friends’. As a whole “Rudy’s
journey” is a neat album with a lot of radio friendly songs however I’m
convinced that true prog lovers will wait in vain for some memorable moments,
moments which sadly never show up ! Knowing the band PUR sells millions of
albums though, “Rudy’s journey” certainly will sell a fair amount of
copies which is a nice piece of promotion for the talent of Michelle Young who
has just released a brandnew solo album produced by Clive Nolan. |
