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Danny: Can I
call this CD ‘John Wetton goes progressive’, or is he already introduced
in that world due to his past? If you know that he played with Family,
King Crimson, Roxy Music, UK and Asia, you can’t deny his progressive
roots.
But since his solo albums, he was always a bit more into AOR. And now he
has taken a step towards our beloved music style. I don’t think that
John has changed his music, but the progressive sound is due to the
musicians he called on to play on this album. They all come from more
progressive bands. Especially Clive Nolan, who even co-wrote a song with
John, has put his mark on the sound, as he’s playing almost all the
keyboards and is even doing the production together with Karl Groom
(guitarist and producer of Threshold). John Mitchell and Steve Christey
(Jadis), Martin Orford (Jadis, IQ), Peter Gee (Pendragon) and Hugh
McDowell (ELO) all help to make this album sound more symphonic.
“Mondrago” an instrumental overture starts already very symphonic with a
complete synthesizer wall of sound.
“Rock
of Faith” starts with a very quiet choir sound. The rest of the song
gives me a very strong “Mike and the Mechanics” feeling.
“A
new day” is again a ballad, but this time with a more solid, heavier
support from the guitars. It contains a beautiful long guitar solo,
interlarded with a scarce little “ELO” riff from the keyboards.
“I’ve
come to take you home” has a quiet start with piano and strings but the
chorus reminds me too much of “Wind Of Change “ (Scorpions).
“Who
will light a candle?” John sings a strong vocal line only accompanied by
strings, so it’s nearly a capella. It’s growing and growing in strength,
passion, volume, orchestration to a climax only to fall back to a
quieter finish.
Police sirens and a funky guitar start the next track, “Nothing’s Gonna
Stand in Our Way”, but it quickly changes in to a slow track, supported
by a Hammond organ. It ends with the same sounds as in the intro, a pity
they didn’t do anything more with these sounds.
“Altro mondo” is an instrumental with some quiet string and choir
sounds. Again a proof of the more symphonic sound of this album. But the
bells make it a bit to much “Christmas”.
The
next song, “I Believe In You”, is the best track of the album. The
middle part sounds as a real Supertramp great, mostly due to the sax
solo, but the guitar solo holds on to the same mood. Martin Orford comes
joining in with his flute to top of the cake.
“Take
me to the waterline” is a good slow to sing along, but nothing more.
“I
Lay Down” is once more a duet with John and the strings. The second half
of the song is introduced by an acoustic guitar, taken over by an
electric guitar solo after which the first half of the song is repeated,
but this time with the band.
The
last song is a real a capella lullaby.
This
is the best John Wetton album since “Battle Lines”. It contains a bit
too much ballads, in fact, almost the whole album is one ballad, but
they are all of a quality to “sit back, relax and enjoy”. For that
reason, I prefer his “Battle Lines”, but this one comes very close.
Bobo: Whilst on holiday I saw a newspaper
with a photograph of Alex, wife of George Best. She had just left
home and was heading for her parents as Best had once again taken to
the bottle. Having a beautiful, much younger wife apparently isn’t
enough to win the battle against king alcohol. It was almost in the
same flash that I saw an image of John Wetton before my eyes. First
the good looking man he was, for sure a rarity in the domain of
progressive rock ! The next an image of a swollen Wetton, only the
shadow of what he once was. Message in a bottle. Indeed. So when
John’s latest solo effort was released I wasn’t sure whether at all
from a musical perspective he could still be his ‘old’ self, whether
that skill too wouldn’t be on the decline. It is with great pleasure
that I can say thát part of his life has been untouched. But for how
long I hear you ask ?
In my humble opinion John Wetton has
one of the most wonderful voices in rock. Together with Paul Rogers,
Wetton is one of my all time favourites in the male vocal
department. Many classic rock tunes carry his singing and looking at
his impressive career and the amount of top rockbands he’s been
involved with, this guy should at least be a millionaire a couple of
times over. As we all know this is not the case and if we are to
believe certain sources John’s life today is more a case of
struggling to survive. Surviving in these difficult climates
especially what music is concerned can only be done by delivering
top notch material. Helped out by Asia buddy Geoff Downes, Jadis
drummer Steve Christey and the Arena tandem John Mitchell and Clive
Nolan he does exactly that. IQ’s Martin Orford guests on flute,
ELO’s Hugh McDowell helps out on cello, Pendragon’s Pete Gee
delivers some neat fretless bass whilst Mike Stobbie once again
creates some outstanding arrangements. All friends who give John a
helping hand. The result is yet another collection of near perfect
rocksongs leaning towards AOR with a dash of progressive rock. As
always the collection also contains pure autobiographical lyrics
containing as Wetton depicts himself : love, uncertainty,
desperation, lust, morality, anger, hope, death and acceptance.
There’s no point in describing track
by track as a John Wetton album hardly changes that much yet I can
underline the ethnic rhythms in ‘Rock of faith’, the use of the
‘original’ Asia-piano in ‘I’ve come to take you home’, the inclusion
of two instrumentals, the almost Supertramp-like feel of ‘I believe
in you’, the nice harmonies and string sections in ‘I lay down’ and
the a capella version of ‘I believe in you’ which has been re-titled
‘When you were young’. A special mention should certainly go towards
the wonderful song ‘Who will light a candle’ sporting the fabulous
contribution from the Orkesta Isola di Cani. Conceived together with
notorious producer Richard Palmer-James in Vienna it’s probably down
to Mike Stobbie’s fantastic arrangement that the word ‘immortal’ is
written all over this song.
In
2003 Wetton has entered an aura of peace, of positive confidence. He
has received that aura of positive feeling thanks to some
exceptional people around him. Let’s hope he’ll be able to catch at
the straw which is called “Rock of faith” as by now we all have
plenty of faith in the musician as well as the person John Wetton.
Grab’em with both hands John, we’re 100% behind you ! |
