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John Mitchell, the guitar player of the well known progband Arena,
has a hobby band. It’s called The Urbane and this is their second
CD. Known for his, sometimes “Gilmour”, guitar solos, you would
expect this album to be overloaded with them, but I have to
disappoint you, because guitar solos are hard to find on this disc.
I
wonder if this CD would ever have come to my attention or would ever
have been reviewed by us if John wasn’t a member of Arena. I think
it’s even a pity for him that he let Inside Out release this album,
because a more mainstream label could have given him more chance to
get some airplay.
This doesn’t mean that the music isn’t good. My rating isn’t really
high because it doesn’t really fits within the scope of our site.
It’s more pop oriented. A lot of bands can be given as reference,
but the one that came first to my mind was Radiohead as they sounded
on their first albums. (Maybe a bit of Stone Temple Pilots).
“Chain Smoking A Way To Your Heart” is a title and a song that could
have come from a Bryan Adams album. “Beautiful Sun“ is a very
sensitive semi-ballad with a high sing-along degree. “Parachute” has
a lot more energy.
At first, I was surprised to find “Time After Time” amongst the
tracks, but the “Cindy Lauper” cover has turned out to become one of
my favourite tracks. John isn’t a bad vocalist, but in this track he
proves that he has a very good voice.
The Urbane Goes Heavy in track 8, “Hate My Radio”, with a distorted
rhythm guitar.
In “Cut The Wire”, another semi ballad, the voice of John sounds a
bit like Peter Gabriel during the verses. And when I had given up
every hope for a progressive track, there it was. The longest track
“Suffocate” with a lot of variation and finally the long awaited
real guitar solo. I know, it’s not like it says on the track list,
but there has been a mess up with the titles on the promo and I’m
not sure which is which.
I won’t mention every track, because they all are great songs with a
lot of hit potential, but no progressive elements, except that one
song.
So if you buy this album, don’t complain that it’s not progressive,
I warned you. And don’t complain that it’s good, I warned you. |
