06-11-2016, 17:13
The Art of Survival (2012) â Billy Sherwood â Iâm exploring his solo back catalogue (in fits and starts) having acquired his latest release, Citizen, a little while back. The concept interested me â big brother and the way technology is changing our lives, levels of privacy, etc., - also nice album artwork â¦.
Heâs so clever and such a competent musician (heâs it on this album â plays everything â does everything, production, engineering the works), and heâs not at all phased about tackling difficult or challenging subject matter, so from that perspective, itâs all great; nothing wrong with any of it, and it sounds far superior to some of the newer so-called progressive stuff thatâs out there at the moment, a lot of which I struggle to enjoy - I just wish heâd slot in an instrumental track or two. Not everyone will agree, but so many words can get quite busy and make things a bit overwrought â same story with Citizen, funnily enough. IMHO, true genius is when the music is allowed to speak for itself â even if in fairly short interludes.
Anyway â I may be being overly critical - it's personal preference and on the whole he produces interesting stuff which I will persist with a little longer, I think ⦠sometimes sounds quite a lot like Peter Gabriel (which isnât entirely surprising given his associations with the cognoscenti of prog rock), and is likely just as committed to highlighting causes â¦
[video=youtube;CgSnZMtLycE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgSnZMtLycE[/video]
![[Image: MI0003654004.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0003/654/MI0003654004.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Heâs so clever and such a competent musician (heâs it on this album â plays everything â does everything, production, engineering the works), and heâs not at all phased about tackling difficult or challenging subject matter, so from that perspective, itâs all great; nothing wrong with any of it, and it sounds far superior to some of the newer so-called progressive stuff thatâs out there at the moment, a lot of which I struggle to enjoy - I just wish heâd slot in an instrumental track or two. Not everyone will agree, but so many words can get quite busy and make things a bit overwrought â same story with Citizen, funnily enough. IMHO, true genius is when the music is allowed to speak for itself â even if in fairly short interludes.
Anyway â I may be being overly critical - it's personal preference and on the whole he produces interesting stuff which I will persist with a little longer, I think ⦠sometimes sounds quite a lot like Peter Gabriel (which isnât entirely surprising given his associations with the cognoscenti of prog rock), and is likely just as committed to highlighting causes â¦
[video=youtube;CgSnZMtLycE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgSnZMtLycE[/video]
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson