Even harder material benefits from his synthesizer and sax virtuosity, which, coupled with his and Steve Hackett's guitars, gives the music a very heavy, larger-than-life sound. His songwriting covers a fairly wide range of styles and sounds, but he does seem more effective in his progressive rock leanings, where his musical vocabulary is fresher and freer. McDonald's songwriting has an expressive voice, but his vocals lack some range and power, probably more ideally suited to backing vocals than lead singing ( Lou Gramm handles some of the lead vocals). Other notables who turn up on various tracks include John Wetton, Peter Frampton, Ian Lloyd, Gary Brooker, Steve Hackett, Michael Giles, and Hugh McCracken. It's surprising to see McDonald still playing with some of the same sidemen he worked with live nearly two decades ago, including ex- Wings drummer Steve Holley, who acquits himself extremely well whether he's playing hard rock, jazz-rock, or progressive rock here. The record contains the influences of both bands, which isn't surprising since McDonald was a central creative force in both. Ian McDonald's first solo album appears nearly 20 years after his double-platinum days with Foreigner and practically 30 years to the day after his debut with King Crimson.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |