What Are You Listening To?

[Ruby]

The Art of Survival (2012) – Billy Sherwood – I’m exploring his solo back catalogue (in fits and starts) having acquired his latest release, Citizen, a little while back. The concept interested me – big brother and the way technology is changing our lives, levels of privacy, etc., - also nice album artwork ….




He’s so clever and such a competent musician (he’s it on this album – plays everything – does everything, production, engineering the works), and he’s not at all phased about tackling difficult or challenging subject matter, so from that perspective, it’s all great; nothing wrong with any of it, and it sounds far superior to some of the newer so-called progressive stuff that’s out there at the moment, a lot of which I struggle to enjoy - I just wish he’d 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 – same story with Citizen, funnily enough. IMHO, true genius is when the music is allowed to speak for itself – even if in fairly short interludes.

Anyway – 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 isn’t entirely surprising given his associations with the cognoscenti of prog rock), and is likely just as committed to highlighting causes …

[video=youtube;CgSnZMtLycE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgSnZMtLycE[/video]