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What have we got here? An instrumental guitar album. It’s hardly
fair this should end up on my review desk at the same time as the
new Steve Howe album. I know, it’s a different thing altogether, but
although there aren’t many similarities between these records, you
can’t help but start comparing.
Once you start doing that, there’s little to say in favour of
Padovani. Sure, he’s a good guitarist, and any band would be happy
to have a musician like him in their midst. But that’s about all I
can say about this “The Big Picture”. The songs are pretty
unexciting, there’s too little variation in the guitar sound and it
just doesn’t have any tracks that I feel I would like to hear again.
You’ve got to hand it to Padovani, though: this self-released album
is nicely done, and I’m sure he has worked hard to get it made. This
is not a shredding extravaganza we see all too often today –
Padovani does try to mix different styles – I always respect that.
Ultimately, though, it just isn’t special enough to keep me
interested.
No, this album isn’t bad, but the bottom line is: not everyone can
be a Steve Vai or Eric Johnson. Or a Steve Howe, for that matter. |
