The way I first understood this album was like a really confusing riddle, simple in appearance but with a lot of codes to break through. The album cover is reminiscent of carnival artwork on those famous 'haunted house' exhibits we loved as kids, so couple that with 18 obscurely named tracks and a very modest price and you're touching on my slight confusion.
I'll start by saying that if you have enough discs in your regular rotation that cannot be sacrificed for any others - kind of like when you tell someone you already have enough friends - then I suggest you stay away from this album. I say this because from the first moment you start listening to it, it will hold a spot inside your CD player for a long time. Part of its carnival like appearance and sound is also its child-like "mommy I wanna ride again" addictiveness. The songs are different to what we normally hear, which is essentially the beauty of progressive music, though this goes even further than progressive, this goes as far as "Steve". What I mean by that is its a style not often experimented with, guitar work that defies the most musically trained ears, and experimental tracks so stupid that only a "Steve" artist would sign them to a disc. But this is all part of the riddle and beauty.
I always laugh at myself when I put on this album, because I am constantly reminded of the cliché that it "starts with a bang!" Anyone who listens to the album on the basis of this review will know exactly what I mean. But in all seriousness, the album opens with the track
"There's a Fire in the House", a fast paced, quasi-upbeat exposition of forgotten rock, sounding like something that the artist might have been written while still in the 80s, perhaps during his David Lee Roth touring days? Perhaps I'm wrong, but the motion of the song implies more of a "Passion and Warfare" (an earlier
Steve Vai album) style of song. It's a great start to the album because it opens up the ears and prepares you for the rest of the music, each song revealing more pieces of the "Steve" puzzle.
Track three
"Dyin' Day" is probably my most enjoyed track on the whole album. As usual, it was a track I was not so fond of when I first heard it, however like all great music it grew on me and suddenly I was hooked. To put it 'shortly' because I could talk about it for hours, I think songs like
"Dyin' Day" are really a dying breed.
Steve Vai is known famously for his slow, tender music, however Dyin' Day really encompasses the passion in Steve's playing. Sometimes it isn't what he's playing, ("but how he's playing it", duh!). but im greatful that this is one example were that old cliché is unbelievably true. Each percussive strum, every microsecond he waits between notes to add that tension, suspense just
delivers. I'm sure as honest music lovers reading this, you would all have at least one very emotional song that just caters to every facet of your soul: your goodness, your ugliness, your anger and joy.the list goes on. This is the song that found its way to my heart, and it is because there is a 'heart overdose' going on inside of it, another typical characteristic of "Steve" music.
One of Steve's most renowned pieces,
"Hand on Heart" is featured on this album (in the mysterious 'track 7' spot [Steve has an affinity with the number 7, even going as far as to make an album called "The Seventh Song" featuring every 7th song from every album he has made]). This song follows in the fashion of "Dyin' Day", very honest and emotional playing. I say honest because the song opens up with just a guitar, nothing else. Its not a heavy guitar riff, its not even a 'riff' per se, but rather something that is very easy to terrorise with too much pressure in the bending notes, or too much vibrato. Its open to attack from all sides and without the correct emotional capacity from the player, you would not get it sounding right. Its for this reason that I always view this opening sequence as being something of a "naked guitar", like standing in front of a room of people playing with no clothes. The whole song follows suit as a ballad like track with the occasional upbeat-intermission to add that colour and flavour - though if this album were a food platter it would be so spicy that Homer Simpson's candle-wax trick would not even work.
Moving on, the second phase of the album - that is from tracks 10-18 (1-10 being Phase 1) are all vocal tracks except the last track which is an instrumental. On these tracks we get to hear the likes of people like Devin Townsend,
Steve Vai and an assortment of other hired guns singing on the tracks. Often Vai, apart from writing for all of the instruments on the album, performed all of the instruments as well.
Phase Two is where I draw the line on how much I accept the album. Although there is a clear distinction between this album and anything else I have listened to in the past few months, it is not without its flaws. Some of the songs in this section are definitely weaker than the phenomenal tracks in Phase One, such as
"Brother" or
"Genocide". I am not saying they are "bad" tracks, though in following from all these brilliantly colourful, vibrant, lively tracks featured in the first 10 tracks, these do not hold up as well. Other songs such as
"Aching Hunger", which has a kind of Michael Jackson "Dangerous" thing going is simply wonderful, and nothing less than fun to hear. This is again that "steve" writing style, which provides a playful atmosphere that pervades the album, giving it that edge above the rest - however I believe its at songs like
"Brother" (and I feel guilty because the song is dedicated to what seems like the men in
Steve Vai's family - so I shouldn't 'knock' his personal dedications) and
"Genocide" that leave a dip in the album, though I'm sure for some listeners these songs are not without charm.
So, if you have made it this far down the page you hopefully have a slight inkling to go out and at least listen to this album - emotionally it can suit almost any mood you are feeling at any given time and is probably one of the only albums that you can listen to with a girl without fearing those dreaded words; "what is THIS?" or "How can you listen to THIS?"
I'll close by saying it's a versatile album, it has something for everyone in any given situation - sunsets, beaches, outdoor lunches. I am definitely NOT saying its generic, I am just saying that a lot of heart went into this disc and that is why it is so easy to enjoy.
Written by
Yoni Saturday, April 3, 2004
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